AUD/USD extends bearish slide further below 0.74 mark, hits fresh multi-month lows

The AUD/USD pair prolonged its sharp reversal move and remained under intense selling pressure for the third consecutive session, now sliding further below the 0.7400 handle to fresh multi-month lows.

A slump in commodity prices, along with post-FOMC up-surge in the US treasury bond yields, has been key factors prompting investors to move their investments out of commodity-linked/higher-yielding currencies - like the Aussie. 

Additionally, RBA's warning about housing market risks and its potential negative impact on consumption and inflation, in its quarterly Statement on Monetary Policy, further collaborated to the heavily offered tone surrounding the major. Market seems to have largely ignored the central bank's GDP outlook, which although was left unchanged for 2017 but showed more optimism going into 2018.

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The pair even failed to benefit from a subdued, range-bounce US Dollar price action, with the ongoing carnage in the commodity space and surging US treasury bond yields acting as key determinants of the pair's movement on the last trading day of the week. 

Investors on Friday will remain focused on the keenly watched NFP data, due later during the NA session. In-line headline numbers would remain supportive for June Fed rate-hike expectorations and should provide a minor boost the USD, eventually open room for continuation of the pair's bearish trajectory.

Technical levels to watch

A follow through selling pressure has the potential to continue dragging the pair towards 0.7350 support, below which the pair seems vulnerable to break below the 0.7300 and head towards testing its next support near 0.7285-80 area.

On the flip side, any recovery attempts might now confront immediate hurdle at the 0.7400 handle, which if cleared might trigger a near-term short-covering bounce towards 0.7425-30 intermediate resistance en-route 0.7460 support turned resistance zone.