AUD/USD closes in on 0.80 after home loans beat forecasts

• AUD catches a bid on upbeat Aussie home loans data.
• AUD/USD nears 0.80, but is vulnerable to technical corrections.

AUD/USD cut through resistance at 0.7978 (76.4% Fib R of Sep-Dec sell-off) and almost tested 0.80 levels after the data released in Australia showed the value of home loan lending rose for the second month in November.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), total lending rose by 2.3% to $33.507 billion in seasonally adjusted terms, beating the estimated drop of 0.2% by a big margin. The details reveal a rise in owner-occupier and investor demand for home loans.

The upbeat data masked the overbought conditions as shown by the daily RSI, and helped the Aussie dollar near 0.80 levels. A break above the psychological hurdle looks like a done deal, although the sustainability of gains is under question, given the currency pair looks overdu a for technical correction. That said, the dips are likely to be short-lived as momentum studies -  5, 10 & 20 DMAs trend north.

AUD/USD Technical Levels

A break above 0.80 (psychological hurdle) would open doors for 0.8037 (Sept. 21 high) and 0.8066 (Jul. 27 high). On the other hand, a failure to hold above 0.7978 (76.4% Fib R of Sep-Dec sell-off) could yield a pullback to 0.7943 (5-day MA) and 0.7894 (10-day MA).