AUD / USD hits multi-year highs above 0.7250 despite weak Chinese imports

• AUD / USD ignored weakness in base metals prices as soft China import data has risen on the day.
• In fact, the pair has made new multi-year highs above 0.7450 in recent trading.

The AUD/USD posted new multi-year highs above 0.7450 in recent trading and currently ranks as the third best performing G10 currency the day after NOK and SEK. The pair is currently trading with gains of around 30 pips or 0.4%.

AUD ignored soft Chinese trade figures

Worryingly for the AUD, given that Chinese consumers absorb more than a third of the country’s total exports, Chinese imports grew at a much slower year-on-year pace of 4.5% (6.1% expected) in November. In fact, Chinese imports of iron ore and copper (both key Australian exports) fell during the month, causing LME copper prices to fall (with the AUD being positively correlated). But weakness in base metals due to disappointing import demand from China has not been able to keep the AUD low for long.

China, which had reportedly held up to 82 shipments of Australian coal worth up to A $ 1.1 billion, reportedly allowed a ship in, perhaps spurring some hopes for normalization in Australia-China trade relations. Allowing one of the 82 stranded ships to document can hardly be taken as a big positive gesture, most would argue, but the AUD does not appear to be overly concerned about the whole situation and is currently moving towards new multi-year highs against the US Dollar. .

AUD / USD remains supported above the uptrend line

AUD / USD experienced a sharp decline during the early part of the European trading session on Monday, falling as low as 0.7370. However, the pair rebounded firmly from a medium-term uptrend line linking the lows of November 13, 19 and 23 and December 1 and 2, which came into play at 0.7370.

Additional technical levels