Australia's Victoria State reports 240 new coronavirus cases, 13 deaths in last 24 hours

Australia's Victoria State reports 240 new coronavirus cases, 13 deaths in the last 24 hours.

Melbourne went into a second lock-down, Stage 3, on July 9 in response to the rapid increase in new cases of coronavirus. Subsequently, on August 8, Melbourne went to a Stage 4 lock-down and regional Victoria to Stage 3.

The key issue now - how successful will the Melbourne lock-down be and will Australia have more success at the next attempt to reopen the economy - or will “second waves” continue to weigh on the outlook for some time yet?

Meanwhile, as of August 19, 2020, the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) had been confirmed in over 210 countries or territories.

The virus had infected over 22.3 million people worldwide, and the number of deaths had totalled over 784 thousand. The most severely affected countries include the US, Brazil, and Mexico.

AUD updates

The greenback was perky overnight treasury yields while a softening in risk appetite pushed the AUD/JPY lower.

Risks remain balanced for the AUD/USD, but the dollar's correction may continue to pressure risk sentiment and thus weigh on the Aussie crosses.

At the time of writing, AUD/USD is trading at 0.7187, below the 0.7275 level.

Meanwhile, as per the overnight analysis, AUD/USD has reached the downside target at the structure:

AUD/USD ahead of the FOMC minutes:

Bears will be prudently seeking a discount and bearsh set-up before looking to catch the next potential opportunity to short.