The Australian Dollar opened near 0.6975, ground higher through every session of the day, and poked above 0.7000 for the first time since mid-June before the momentum quietly left the room.
The Aussie trades near 0.7005 at writing, up 0.44%, having stalled at 0.7021 and backed off the 50-day Exponential Moving Average (EMA) at 0.7016 almost to the pip
A range inside half a big figure makes this one of Wednesday’s less dramatic majors; the level it played out at makes it one of the more important ones. The round number carries a month of baggage. The Aussie slid from above 0.7050 in mid-June to a base near 0.6865 in early July, then ground its way back on a steady run of higher lows, and Wednesday’s push was the first test of the declining 50-day average since the breakdown.
Rejections at falling moving averages are what downtrends produce; a clean daily close through one is what ends them, and the pair sits a handful of pips shy of finding out which it gets. Beijing serves a mixed plate China’s second-quarter Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew 0.9% on the quarter, matching consensus but slowing from 1.3%, while the annual rate missed at 4.3% against 4.5% expected. The June activity data pulled the other way: industrial production beat at 5.3% YoY against a 4.6% consensus, and retail sales swung back to growth at 1% against expectations for a 0.1% decline.