AUD/USD: steady in recovery ahead of key data events this week

AUD/USD is currently steady in early Asia after a sideways and choppy narrow range to end the week last week.

It is scheduled to be a quiet start to the week and commodities will be the focus with a slightly weaker greenback that closed 0.25 lower on Friday. Oil will be the key driver in markets due to the OPEC deal looking very slight right now after the Saudies refused to attend Mondays' meeting with non-OPEC members. Then, later in the week, we have Chinese manufacturing data, US jobs and GDP numbers as a key focus.

Analysts at Westpac offered AUD/USD in a 1-3 month outlook: "The US dollar has had an impressive rise since the US election and has potential to rise further, not least because the Fed will probably hike in December. Against that, coal and iron ore are more likely to sustain their dramatic rises during the months ahead. We target 0.72."

AUD/USD levels

The price broke up recently and has had a series of positive days, penetrating the key  0.7421/43 area and bulls now have eyes for the 200 and 55-day moving averages at 0.7529/87 ahead of the key psychological 0.76 handle. To the downside, we have strong support below the 0.7312/10 area that comes in between the mid-June low and 78.6% Fibonacci retracement at 0.7287/81 ahead of the 0.7150 lows in late May.