AUD/USD bears in full control, slides farther below 0.7400 mark to fresh three-week lows

Selling pressure around the Australian Dollar remains unabated, dragging the AUD/USD pair to fresh three-week lows near 0.7380 region after upbeat US private sector employment data.

Thursday's ADP National Employment report revealed private US employers continued to hire solidly during May, adding 253K new jobs as compared to April 174K and far better-than 185K expected. This coupled with gradual rate-hike comments by the Federal Reserve governor Jerome Powell added to the US treasury bond yields up-surge and weighed heavily on higher-yielding currencies - like the Aussie.

Other data released from the US showed initial jobless claims rose more-than-expected to 248K for the week ended May 26 as against an expected rise to 239K and previous week's 235K. A slight disappointment from weekly jobless claims did little to stall the pair's downslide led by today's dismal Chinese manufacturing PMI. 

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However, a modest recovery in copper prices might lend some immediate support but is unlike to assist the pair to register any meaningful bounce back from the lowest level since May 12.

Next on tap would the release of ISM manufacturing PMI, which would be looked upon for some immediate respite for the Aussie bulls. 

   •  US: Headline ISM index to decline slightly to 54.6 in May – Nomura

Technical levels to watch

The ongoing momentum seems strong enough to continue dragging the pair further towards its next support near 0.7345-40 area, below which the pair is likely to accelerate the slide towards 0.7300-0.7295 important horizontal support. On the flip side, any recovery attempts back above the 0.7400 handle might now confront strong resistance near 0.7420 level, above which a bout of short-covering has the potential to lift the pair back towards 0.7460 hurdle.