AUD/USD flirts with daily highs, steady above 0.7200

  • AUD/USD attracted fresh buying near the 0.7160 area and reversed the initial bearish gap opening.
  • Upbeat data, bets on an eventual RBA rate hike in 2020 provided some support to the Aussie.
  • A recovery in risk sentiment undermined the safe-haven USD and contributed to the upside move.

The pair AUD/USD built on its steady intraday move and rose to a fresh daily high, around the 0.7220-0.7225 region ahead of the American session.

After opening a bearish gap on Monday, the AUD/USD pair attracted some buying on the dips near 0.7150 and was supported by a combination of factors. The initial rally followed the upbeat release of Australian retail sales data, which reaffirmed market bets on an eventual interest rate hike by the Reserve Bank of Australia in 2022. Apart from this, a recovery in the stock markets caused some intraday selling around the safe. -haven of the US dollar and further benefited the Australian dollar perceived as more risky.

The initial reaction to the weekend’s developments around the Ukraine crisis seemed short-lived, evident in an intraday bounce in global stock markets. It is worth remembering that Western nations stepped up their efforts to punish Russia for its invasion of Ukraine and imposed harsh new sanctions, including removing some of its banks from the SWIFT financial network. In addition, Russian President Vladimir Putin upped the ante on Sunday and put the country’s strategic nuclear forces on high alert.

The market’s nervousness, however, calmed down after the Russian negotiator said that they are interested in reaching an agreement with Ukraine as soon as possible. In addition to this, reports indicated that the Ukraine-Russia dialogue has already started in Belarus and is being coined as “peace talks” by the Russian media, raising expectations of some de-escalation of tensions. This, in turn, helped risk-off sentiment stabilize a bit and provided a modest boost to the AUD/USD pair amid some repositioning trade ahead of the RBA on Tuesday.

That said, any bullish moves in the markets are likely to remain limited as focus remains glued to new developments surrounding the Russia-Ukraine saga. Therefore, it will be prudent to wait for some follow-on buying, possibly beyond the 100-day SMA hurdle, before positioning for further gains amid the absence of any relevant economic releases in the market.

Technical levels

AUD/USD

Panorama
Last Price Today 0.7232
Today’s Daily Change 0.0001
Today’s Daily Change % 0.01
Today’s Daily Opening 0.7231
Trends
20 Daily SMA 0.7159
50 Daily SMA 0.718
100 Daily SMA 0.724
200 Daily SMA 0.7335
levels
Previous Daily High 0.7238
Previous Daily Minimum 0.714
Previous Maximum Weekly 0.7285
Previous Weekly Minimum 0.7094
Monthly Prior Maximum 0.7315
Previous Monthly Minimum 0.6966
Daily Fibonacci 38.2% 0.7201
Daily Fibonacci 61.8% 0.7178
Daily Pivot Point S1 0.7168
Daily Pivot Point S2 0.7106
Daily Pivot Point S3 0.7071
Daily Pivot Point R1 0.7266
Daily Pivot Point R2 0.7301
Daily Pivot Point R3 0.7364

Source: Fx Street

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