- AUD/USD refreshes intraday low following Aussie Retail Sales for April.
- Retail Sales grew past forecast but not beyond the previous readout, CBA PMIs came in mixed.
- Market sentiment extends previous day’s optimism amid a lack of major catalysts.
- Gaza ceasefire, Aussie-China tussles and Japan’s expanded emergency fail to entertain traders.
AUD/USD takes offers around intraday low of 0.7760, down 0.16% on a day, during early Friday. in doing so, the pair ignores better-than-expected preliminary Retail Sales for Australia amid mixed sentiment.
Australia Retail Sales cross 0.5% forecast with +1.1% MoM but lags behind the 1.3% prior.
Read: Aussie Retail Sales big beat vs expected by 0.6%, lower than prior
Earlier in the day, Australia’s Commonwealth Bank (CBA) published the first readings of May month activity numbers. The readings suggest weakness in Services PMI to 58.2 versus 58.9 forecast and 58.8 prior whereas Manufacturing PMI crossed 59.8 market consensus and 59.7 previous readouts with 59.9 figures. As a result, the CBA Composite PMI eased from 58.9 to 58.1 during the current month.
As Aussie data flashes mixed signals, AUD/USD traders ignore upbeat market sentiment to consolidate the latest gains. In doing so, the risk-barometer pays a little heed to the Israel-Palestine peace accord as well as Japan’s push for faster vaccinations. The traders’ cautious mood could be traced to second-tier news negatively affecting the sentiment as well as the cautious mood ahead of the key US PMI data.
Among the negatives, Australia’s fear that China’s Huawei could take over the Aussie 5G network and Japan's official announcement of an emergency in Okinawa prefecture from May 23 to June 20 are the important ones.
Even so, S&P 500 Futures print 0.25% intraday gains while Australia’s ASX 200 also defends bulls by the press time.
Given the lack of major data/events ahead of the US session, AUD/USD traders may follow the signals from risk catalysts for near-term direction.
Technical analysis
AUD/USD remains in the range between 0.7820 and 0.7700-7690 area whereas in multiple tops marked since January guard the pair’s upside while the five-week-old rising trend line and 50-day SMA restrict the declines.
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