Australian Dollar flat lines above 0.7150 vs USD after Aussie trade data, China PMI

The Australian Dollar (AUD) remained relatively stable above 0.7150 against the US Dollar (USD) following the release of Australian trade data and China's RatingDog Services PMI. On Thursday, the AUD/USD pair oscillated within a narrow range, hovering near the mid-0.7100s following the Bureau of Statistics' report on Australia's trade surplus.

The surplus amounted to A$1,923 million in July, a sharp increase from the revised A$2,341 million in June and the consensus estimate of A$1,390 million. Meanwhile, China's RatingDog Services PMI rose to 51.4 in August, exceeding the market's projected 50.6. Despite these positive indicators for the AUD, the pair failed to make significant gains.

The strengthening argument for the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) to consider rate hikes, fueled by hotter-than-expected July inflation data and improved second-quarter Gross Domestic Product (GDP) figures, bolstered the Australian Dollar's performance. At the same time, rising expectations of an interest rate hike by the US Federal Reserve (Fed) and escalating US-Iran tensions allowed the USD to maintain its position as a safe-haven currency, limiting the AUD/USD pair's upward momentum.

The AUD/USD pair remained above the 100-period Simple Moving Average (SMA) support level on the 4-hour chart, which lent a mildly bullish tone to the near-term outlook. As long as the pair sustains its position above the 0.7130 level during pullbacks, technical analysis suggests that further upward consolidation is likely. A decisive breach below this support could trigger selling and potentially extend the recent corrective pullback from a multi-month high reached in August.