AUD/USD hangs near multi-month lows, above 0.6700 mark

• AUD/USD remains depressed for the third consecutive session on Friday.
• Chinese PMIs did little to impress bulls or provide any immediate respite.
• Traders now eye second-tier US economic data for some short-term impetus.

The AUD/USD pair struggled to register any meaningful recovery and remained well within the striking distance of near four-month lows set in the previous session.

The pair remained depressed for the third consecutive session on Friday – also marking its fifth day of a negative move in the previous six – and failed to gain any respite from positive Chinese macro data.

Bulls still seemed reluctant

In fact, China’s official manufacturing PMI edged lower to 50.0 in January from 50.2 previous and the non-manufacturing PMI rose to 54.1 in January from 53.5 in December, indicating modest expansion.

However, the fact that the reports did not take into account the outbreak of the deadly coronavirus failed to impress bullish traders or provide any meaningful boost to the China-proxy Australian dollar.

On the other hand, the US dollar remained well supported by Thursday's mostly in line US Q4 GDP print and a goodish pickup in the US Treasury bond yields, which further collaborated to the pair's weaker tone.

Meanwhile, a turnaround in the global risk sentiment did little to impress bullish traders, albeit seemed to be the only factor lending some support and helped the pair to defend the 0.6700 mark, at least for now.

Moving ahead, market participants now look forward to the US economic docket – featuring the release of Personal Income/Spending data and Core PCE Price Index – to grab some short-term opportunities.

Technical levels to watch