AUD/USD holds steady near session tops, awaits a move beyond 0.7600 mark

• A subdued USD price action helped AUD/USD to gain some positive traction on Monday.
• The prevalent cautious mood kept a lid on any further gains for the perceived riskier aussie.

The AUD/USD pair held steady near the top end of its daily trading range, with bulls still awaiting a sustained move beyond the 0.7600 round-figure mark.

The pair attracted some dip-buying on the first day of a new trading week and is now be looking to build on last week's goodish rebound from six-month lows. Easing worries about runaway inflation in the US kept the US dollar bulls on the defensive. This, in turn, was seen as the key factor that extended some support to the AUD/USD pair.

In fact, the US core PCE Price Index – excluding the volatile food and energy components – showed a notable acceleration in May and shot up 3.4% YoY. This marked the largest gain since April 1992, though fell short of market expectations and reaffirmed the Fed's narrative that any rise in inflation will be transitory.

This comes on the back of last week's comments by the Fed Chair Jerome Powell, saying that inflation is rising due to pent-up demand and supply bottlenecks and that the price pressures should ease on their own. 
This continued acting as a headwind for the greenback and assisted the AUD/USD pair to gain some traction on Monday.

That said, a cautious mood around the equity markets held traders from placing any aggressive bets around the perceived riskier aussie. This makes it prudent to wait for some strong follow-through buying before positioning for any further gains around the AUD/USD pair amid absent relevant market moving economic releases.

Technical levels to watch