For the 24 hours to 23:00 GMT, the AUD rose 0.18% against the USD and closed at 0.7421 on Friday.
LME Copper prices declined 0.2% or $12.5/MT to $5530.5/MT. Aluminium prices declined 0.1% or $2.5/MT to $1907.0/MT.
In the Asian session, at GMT0300, the pair is trading at 0.7397, with the AUD trading 0.32% lower against the USD from Friday’s close, on the back of weaker-than-expected building approvals data in Australia.
Early morning data indicated that Australia’s seasonally adjusted building approvals deteriorated 13.4% on a monthly basis in March, surpassing market consensus for a drop of 4.0%. In the previous month, building approvals had risen by a revised 8.9%.
On the other hand, the nation’s NAB business confidence index rose to a six-year high level of 13.0 in April, highlighting that firms are getting increasingly optimistic about the nation’s economic recovery. The index had registered a reading of 6.0 in the prior month. Moreover, the nation’s business conditions index climbed to a level of 14.0 in April. In the previous month, the index had recorded a revised level of 12.0.
Elsewhere, in China, Australia’s largest trading partner, trade surplus widened more-than-anticipated to a level of CNY262.3 in billion in April, jumping to its highest level since January 2017. In the previous month, the nation recorded a surplus of CNY164.3 billion. Meanwhile, the nation’s annual exports rose less-than-expected by 14.3% in April, compared to gain of 22.3% in the prior month. Also, the nation’s imports advanced less-than-anticipated by 18.6% on an annual basis in April, after recording a rise of 26.3% in the previous month.
The pair is expected to find support at 0.7366, and a fall through could take it to the next support level of 0.7335. The pair is expected to find its first resistance at 0.7427, and a rise through could take it to the next resistance level of 0.7457.
Moving ahead, market participants await the release of Australia’s retail sales data for March, slated to release in the early hours of tomorrow.
The currency pair is showing convergence with its 20 Hr and 50 Hr moving averages.
