AUD/USD sticks to RBA minutes-led intraday losses, below 0.6700 mark
- AUD/USD came under some selling pressure on dovish RBA meeting minutes.
- Softer risk sentiment benefitted the USD and exerted some additional pressure.
The AUD/USD pair now seems to have entered a bearish consolidation phase and was seen oscillating in a narrow band near session lows, just below the 0.6700 round-figure mark.
The pair came under some fresh selling pressure on Tuesday and finally broke down of its two-day-old trading range in reaction to the dovish sounding RBA monetary policy meeting minutes, which revealed policymakers’ easing bias.
The risk-off mood adds to RBA-led weakness
This coupled with persistent worries about the economic impact of coronavirus outbreak in China – despite the PBoC's latest stimulus measures on Monday – exerted some additional downward pressure on the China-proxy aussie.
Adding to this, a turnaround in the global risk sentiment, triggered by Apple's warning that it will be unable to meet its March quarter guidance, further collaborated towards driving flows away from perceived riskier currencies – like the Australian dollar.
Meanwhile, the global flight to safety helped the US dollar to hold steady near 4-1/2 month tops set on Friday, which did little to ease the intraday bearish pressure surrounding the major or provide any immediate respite to the bulls.
Moving ahead, market participants now look forward to a relatively thin US economic docket, highlighting the release of the Empire State Manufacturing Index, in order to grab some short-term trading opportunities later this Tuesday.
Technical levels to watch