AUD/USD: Comatose after RBA Governor Lowe’s speech and China trade data release

• AUD/USD’s unresponsiveness to macro data releases continues to frustrate both bulls and bears.
• RBA’s Lowe sounded upbeat on the economy but is no hurry to raise rates.
• China trade surplus narrowed in July.

AUD/USD has hardly moved post-China trade data release.

At press time, the currency pair is trading at 0.7429. The descending 10-week MA, currently lined up at 0.7437, is again capping the upside in the pair, having played a spoilsport in two out of the previous four trading weeks.

China’s trade surplus narrowed in July

China’s trade surplus narrowed to CNY 176.96 billion in July, missing the estimated rise to CNY 280.90 billion from the previous month’s print of CNY 261.90 billion.

The exports rose 6 percent year-on-year, narrowly missing the estimated rise of 6.4 percent. On the other hand, imports spiked 27.3 percent, bettering the 16.2 percent expected rise by a big margin.

It appears the Chinese importers preponed purchases in July, tracking the slide in CNY.

The drop in the Chinese trade surplus, though a bad news for China proxies, has not had a big impact on the Aussie dollar.

Meanwhile, RBA’s Lowe, while speaking at the Anika Foundation Lunch, reiterated that the central bank does not see a strong case for a near-term rate move, but the next move is will likely be on the higher side if economy evolves as expected.

With RBA’s Lowe sticking to the age-old script, the AUD bulls and bears have little reason to flex their muscles.

Looking ahead, a sustained rise in the CNY could put a strong bid under the AUD, lifting it to a short-term bull market territory above 0.7490.

AUD/USD Technical Levels

Resistance: 0.7437 (10-week moving average), 0.7490 (trendline hurdle),  0.7528 (100-day moving average)

Support: 0.7415 (session low), 0.7381 (previous day’s low), 0.7348 (August 3 low).