Australian Dollar rebounds on the back of feel-good Disney earnings

• Australian Dollar rises after the market adopts a risk-on vibe following positive Disney earnings.
• AUD/USD could see volatility from soon-to-be-released US CPI data. 
• Embattled Aussie Dollar pushes back up towards 0.66 at the start of the US session. 

The Australian Dollar (AUD) gets lifted up by the helium balloon of positive sentiment on Thursday after Disney announces feel-good earnings and the major Wall Street indices rise on the back of its coat-tails. 

The US Dollar (USD), meanwhile, takes a turn lower as safe-haven demand diminishes and traders await key inflation data out at 12:30 GMT.  

AUD/USD trades in the upper 0.65s at the start of the US session.  

Australian Dollar news and market movers 

• The Australian Dollar recovers on the back of a positive change in market sentiment after entertainment megalith Disney announces decent earnings. 
• The news helps mitigate the negative impact of recent lower-than-expected trade and inflation data from China, which stoked fears the country may be slowing down. 
• Australian data out on Thursday morning showed a moderation lower in Inflation Expectations in August to 4.9% from 5.2% previously. 
• Longer- term influences include the fact that China is trying to diversify away from relying too heavily on Australian raw materials, according to Clifford Bennet, Chief Economist at ACY Securities – a negative for AUD. 
• AUD/USD could fall to as low as 0.40, according to David Llewellyn-Smith, Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. 
• He likens the current market conditions to those in the 1990s, comparing China to Japan, which similarly underwent an economic boom before peaking in the 90s when the Japanese property bubble burst, bringing the good times to an end. Llewellyn-Smith foresees the same fate for China. 
• He further expects the US Dollar to maintain its value as the AI revolution creates a tech boom in the US, just as the dot-com bubble did in the 90s. 
• The US Dollar is likely to be impacted by US Consumer Price Index (CPI) data for July, out on Thursday at 12:30 GMT. Expectations are for CPI to rise by 3.3% YoY and 0.2% MoM, and for Core CPI to rise by 4.8% YoY and also 0.2% MoM. 
• An undershoot is likely to weigh on the US Dollar (bullish for AUD/USD) because it reduces the chances of the Federal Reserve (Fed) raising interest rates. The opposite is true of an overshoot. 

Australian Dollar technical analysis 

AUD/USD is in a sideways trend on both the long and medium-term charts. The February high at 0.7158 is a key hurdle, which if vaulted, will give the longer-term charts a more bullish tone. 

The 0.6458 low established in June is a key level for bears. If this is breached decisively, it would color the charts more bearish. Price is currently closer to this key low. 

Australian Dollar vs US Dollar: Weekly Chart

Price has now broken cleanly below the confluence of moving averages (MA) close to 0.6700, made up of most of the major SMAs – the 50-week, 50-day and 100-day. The breaching of this key support and resistance level is a bearish sign. 

Australian Dollar vs US Dollar: Daily Chart

AUD/USD has broken below the 0.6600 June lows, and a continuation down to the key May lows at 0.6460, is quite possible. A decisive break below them would open the way for a move down to 0.6170 and the 2022 lows. 

Because the pair is in a sideways trend overall, it is unpredictable, and the probabilities do not favor either bears or bulls overall – nor is the Relative Strength Index (RSI) providing much insight on either timeframe. 

For bulls, a decisive break back above the skein of MAs in the upper 0.66s and then through 0.6750 would be a prerequisite for a more optimistic outlook. 

In technical terms, a ‘decisive break’ consists of a long daily candlestick, which pierces cleanly above or below the critical level in question and then closes near to the high or low of the day. It can also mean three up or down days in a row that break cleanly above or below the level, with the final day closing near its high or low and a decent distance away from the level.