USD/CHF struggles to preserve gains, turns flat below 0.96

After reaching its fresh session high at 0.9615, the USD/CHF pair struggled to and gave away its daily gains and is now trading little changed at 0.9585. 

Although the geopolitical tension between North Korea and the U.S. continued to escalate on Tuesday, the CHF had a difficult time finding demand as a safe-haven. Earlier in the day, the GDP growth data from Switzerland came in at 0.3% both on a quarterly and yearly basis, missing the market estimates and putting the CHF under pressure. Other data showed that the CPI remained unchanged on a monthly basis in August and increased by 0.5% annually.

On the other hand, the US Dollar Index lost traction in the early NA session after some dovish remarks from Lael Brainard, a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve. Speaking at University Club in New York, Brainard said that the monetary policy should not be the first line of defense against financial imbalances and further added that the Fed should be cautious on rate hikes due to the long period of low inflation. At the moment, the DXY is at 92.45, losing 0.13% on the day. 

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Later in the session, Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari and Dallas Fed President Robert Kaplan will be giving speeches, which could provide the next catalyst for the greenback. 

Technical outlook

The first technical support for the pair could be seen at 0.9545 (daily low) before 0.9500 (psychological level) and 0.9430 (Aug. 29 low). On the upside, resistances align at 0.9625 (50-DMA/20-DMA), 0.9670 (100-DMA) and 0.9760 (Aug. 16 high). On the daily and the H4 graph, the RSI indicator is moving sideways near the 50 handle, failing to give a clear sign for the next short-term direction.