Pair down about 10 pips despite run up in stocks today
The AUDUSD has not been phased by the run up in the stocks today. The Nasdaq is up 2.52% The S&P is up 1.69%. European shares rose, but one of the "risk-on" currency pairs is still down about 10 pips from the Friday close. Admittedly, the price is off the low, but is only about midrange of the low to high trading range.
What may be keeping a lid on the pair is that China's Caixan manufacturing PMI index came in weaker than expected at 51.5 vs. 52.6 forecast and 53.0 last month.
That got the pair off to a weaker start and although the price squeezed higher in the Asian session, it did run into some resistance in the 0.76584 to 0.7669 area (see red numbered circles and yellow area).
The price rotated back to the downside from that resistance area, but fell short of the low for the day.
At 0.76373 currently, the pair is just a few pips below the 50% retracement of the move up from the December 21 low to the January 6 high at 0.76403. If the price can get above that midpoint level, we should see another run toward the aforementioned resistance area above which is now joined by the falling 100 hour moving average at 0.7662..
