Australian Dollar meets resistance again

Daily Currency Update

AUD - Australian DollarThe Australian Dollar made a small gain on Thursday during the Asian session touching a high of 0.6936 vs the Greenback despite some disappointing macro data releases. Australia’s Q1 private-sector capital expenditure (CAPEX) fell 1.7% quarter-on-quarter in the first quarter of 2019, missing the estimated 0.5% growth. CAPEX had increased by 2% in the final three months of 2018. Australian building approvals fell 4.7% month-on-month in April, missing the expected reading of 0.1% but improving on the 15.5% slump experienced in March. Australia has been facing its worst property market slump in 25 years, with prices declining steeply in most cities through 2018. Unfortunately, the bulls failed to push the pair higher and the AUD/USD began to descend quite rapidly just under 69c as the European and North American markets opened. Looking forward, we see the release of Private Sector Credit which measures the change in the total value of new credit issued to consumers and businesses. With mounting fears over further escalation with the US-China trade war and the Aussie being at the mercy of this trade war we believe this may keep a lid on near-term Aussie rally. On the technical front, support sits at 0.6880 and 0.6800 with resistance at 0.6940 and 0.7000.