AUD/USD: Undeterred By Worsening Business Confidence

 | Aug 13, 2013 03:29AM ET

AUD/USD suffered a sell-off yesterday, hitting a low of 0.9135 following the failure to break 0.92 convincingly. Prices continued lower during early Asian session today unprovoked, possibly due to the continuation of technical bears seeking the 0.91 round figure target. Prices did manage to hit the 0.91, and profit taking actions were spotted, sending price back up towards the soft resistance of 0.913.

A good evidence that we’re currently under purely technical bearish influence can be seen from the fact that price continued its pullback to 0.913 after tagging 0.91 briefly, despite the worsening NAB Business Confidence, which stood at -3 and the worst we’ve seen in 2013. If current sell-off was due to underlying bearish sentiment, the negative economic news release should have sparked some bearish overreaction. The lack of any bearish reaction, and the continued ability of price to rebound towards 0.913 post news release affirms the assertion that the rejection of 0.92 towards 0.91 is purely technical in nature, and so is the rebound from 0.91.

This may seem frivolous to some, but it is important to note that this would mean current bullish sentiment post RBA rate cut last week is still in play. The same underlying bullish sentiment that allowed AUD/USD to rally despite suffering a major employment change disappointment; the same bullish sentiment that allow price to hit 0.92 from below 0.89 last Tuesday. With that in mind, it will be too premature to simply assume that yesterday’s decline may have further legs to run lower, and place a higher likelihood that 0.913 may be broken for a retest of 0.92 once again.

Hourly Chart