AUD/USD drops to 5-week low, inching back closer to 0.75 handle

The AUD/USD pair remained under some selling pressure on Friday and extended previous session's break down momentum below the very important 200-day SMA support to hit a five week low. 

The US bombing at a Syrian airbase, which was used to launch deadly chemical weapons on civilians, triggered a fresh wave of global risk-aversion trade on Friday and weighed heavily on riskier / higher-yielding currencies - like the Aussie. 

Moreover, the US Dollar remains supported by the incoming economic data that continues reflecting the underlying strength of the US economy and further collaborated to the offered tone surrounding the major. 

Meanwhile, a mildly negative tone surrounding copper prices did little to extend any immediate respite for the commodity linked currencies, with the pair sliding to test its lowest level since March 10.

Investors’ attention will remain glued to the keenly watched monthly jobs report from the US (NFP), with the headline number anticipated to show an addition of 180K new jobs during March. Also in focus would be news coming out of the crucial Trump-Xi summit, which has the potential to drive a fresh bout of volatility across global financial markets and determine demand for China-proxy Australian Dollar.

Technical levels to watch

Immediate support is pegged near the key 0.75 psychological mark, below which the pair is likely to accelerate the slide towards 0.7475 horizontal support, en-route 0.7425-20 strong support. On the upside, any recovery beyond 0.7530-35 area now seems to confront immediate strong hurdle near 0.7555 level (200-day SMA), which if cleared might trigger a short-covering rally towards 0.7570-75 intermediate resistance ahead of the 0.7600 handle.