AUD/USD weakens amid coronavirus fears after Aussie data, RBA’s Lowe

• AUD/USD snaps the three-day winning streak.
• Risk-takers catch a breath amid mixed headlines concerning coronavirus impact and the latest sharp rise in cases from Hubei.
• US inflation data, coronavirus news will be in focus for now.

AUD/USD declines to 0.6720 after updates from Australia/China made the Asian session entertaining on early Thursday. While downbeat Aussie Inflation Expectations and renewed fears of coronavirus earlier dragged the quote to an intra-day low of 0.6706, traders seem to pay less attention to the RBA Governor Philip Lowe’s upbeat remarks.

Australia’s February month Consumer Inflation Expectations lagged behind 4.3% forecast and 4.47% prior to 4.0%.

After that, RBA’s Lowe’s comments from the Economic Leadership Forum crossed wires. The RBA Chief said that the coronavirus is having an uncertain impact, but absent the virus makes the Australian economic outlook improving.

Read: RBA and BoC governors speaking: Mixed outlooks on economy and coronavirus

China’s Hubei reported 14,840 new coronavirus cases with the death toll rising by 242 to 1,310 at the end of February 2020, as per the official figures. The surge in numbers could be attributed to the revised diagnostic standard.

Following the news, the market’s risk-tone nosedived with S&P 50 Futures taking their first downtick, followed by US 10-year treasury yields. Traders were earlier cheering the receding cases of coronavirus from China, not to mention expectations of early recovery.

Technical Analysis

A pullback from the six-week-old resistance-line, now at 0.6745, drags AUD/USD prices towards 0.6700 mark ahead of highlighting the monthly low near 0.6680.