AUD/USD slumps below 0.7500 pressured by risk aversion
- AUD/USD is suffering heavy losses at the start of the week.
- Sour market mood weighs on risk-sensitive AUD on Monday.
- US Dollar Index jumps to 91.00 area ahead of the American session.
After spending the Asian trading hours in a tight range below 0.7600, the AUD/USD pair came under heavy bearish pressure in the early European session and dropped to its lowest level since December 10th at 0.7462. Although the pair staged a modest rebound in the last hours, it's still trading a little below 0.7500, losing 1.7% on a daily basis.
DXY starts the week on a strong footing
The negative shift witnessed in market sentiment at the start of the week is making it difficult for the risk-sensitive AUD to find demand. Earlier in the day, the New South Wales government announced that they confirmed some travellers returning from the UK were carrying the mutated form of the coronavirus.
Mirroring the flight to safety, major European equity indexes were down between 2.7% and 3.25% at the time of press and the S&P 500 Futures were losing more than 2%.
In the meantime, the safe-haven USD is attracting investors on Monday with the US Dollar Index (DXY) climbing higher toward 91.00 and erasing all of last week's losses. Moreover, the selling pressure surrounding European currencies, especially the GBP, amid a lack of progress in Brexit talks is providing an additional boost to the greenback.
Later in the day, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago will release the National Activity Index for November. In the early trading hours of the Asian session, November Retail Sales will be featured in the Australian economic docket.
Technical levels to watch for