AUD/USD holds steady, below 0.6800 handle ahead of RBA Governor Lowe's speech
- Positive trade-related comments provided a minor lift to the China-proxy Aussie.
- Geopolitical tensions/global growth concerns held investors from placing bullish bets.
- Stronger USD further collaborates towards capping ahead of Lowe’s scheduled speech.
The AUD/USD pair quickly retreated around 15 pips from daily tops and is currently placed in the neutral territory, around the 0.6775-70 region.
The pair added to the overnight modest gains and picked up some pace during the Asian session on Tuesday, climbing to an intraday high level of 0.6786 after the US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin confirmed the Chinese vice Premier’s trade visit to the US in the next week.
RBA rate cut speculations offset trade optimism
This coupled with the US President Donald Trump's statement, signalling China's commitment to buy more of the US farm products added to the optimism and provided a modest boost to the China-proxy Aussie, albeit a combination of factors kept a lid on any strong follow-through.
Against the backdrop of escalating geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, growing concerns about the global economic growth continued benefitting the US Dollar's relative safe-haven status against the perceived riskier currency - Australian Dollar - and capped any further gains.
This coupled with firming expectations that the RBA will cut interest rates further on October 1 further held investors from placing any aggressive bets ahead of the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) Governor Lowe scheduled speech later during the European trading session.
Apart from this, investors on Tuesday will further take cues from the US economic docket, highlighting the release of Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index, which might influence the USD price dynamics and produce some short-term trading opportunities.
Technical levels to watch