AUD/USD Technicals – S/T Bearishness Seen Pre RBA

Hourly Chart

AUDUSD_051113H1

Short-term bearish momentum seen, with prices breaking Channel Bottom following the rejection from 0.952 resistance. Stochastic reading agrees with a fresh bearish cycle signal in play currently.

This bearish move came in spite of the HSBC/Markit Chinese Service PMI announcement, which came in at 52.6, stronger than previous month’s 52.4. This latest economic numbers also affirmed the official Chinese PMI numbers released last week, adding credence to the better than expected print which tended to be “over optimistic” in the past. Hence we should have seen AUD/USD pushing higher, and the fact that the opposite happened suggest that we are under strong technical influence (which explains the inability to break the resistance).

Another possibility is that traders are still bullish, but are unwilling to commit further with Reserve Bank of Australia’s rate decision coming out in slightly over an hour’s time. There may be some truth in this assertion as prices have been consistently trading higher since Monday, and hence it will incorrect to assume that underlying sentiment is inherently bearish.

Should RBA holds rates as expected and maintains the same hawkish (or less dovish to be exact) tone of October, we could see latent bulls coming back into play and push price above 0.952 for a continued recovery towards 0.96 and beyond. Even in the event that RBA is slightly more dovish than expected, prices could still recover if we stay above 0.943 which is the starting point for this week’s rally.

More Links:
AUD/USD – Aussie Rise Continues As Retail Sales Jump
USD/CAD – Canadian Dollar Continues Pressure on Greenback
EUR/USD – Euro Steady After Sharp Losses

This article is for general information purposes only. It is not investment advice or a solution to buy or sell securities. Opinions are the authors; not necessarily that of OANDA Corporation or any of its affiliates, subsidiaries, officers or directors. Leveraged trading is high risk and not suitable for all. You could lose all of your deposited funds.

Mingze Wu

Mingze Wu

Currency Analyst at Market Pulse
Based in Singapore, Mingze Wu focuses on trading strategies and technical and fundamental analysis of major currency pairs. He has extensive trading experience across different asset classes and is well-versed in global market fundamentals. In addition to contributing articles to MarketPulseFX, Mingze centers on forex and macro-economic trends impacting the Asia Pacific region.
Mingze Wu