AUD/USD tumbles to lows, farther below 0.80 handle

The AUD/USD pair remained under some selling pressure and has now dropped to fresh session low, near the 0.7970-65 region. 

On Wednesday, the pair once again failed to sustain above the key 0.80 psychological mark and retreated from 0.8020-30 supply zone for the second time over the past 24-hours, eroding part of previous session's strong gains. 

The initial leg of retracement was triggered by today's mostly in-line release of Australian second quarter GDP growth numbers, which seemed to have disappointed some market participants anticipating a positive surprise. 

This coupled with a modest uptick in the US Treasury bond yields, which although failed to provide any immediate respite to the US Dollar bulls, further collaborated towards driving flows away from higher-yielding currencies - like the Aussie.

Even the prevalent bullish sentiment around commodity space also did little to lend any support to commodity-linked currencies and stall the pair's slide through early NA session. 

Meanwhile, the US trade balance data, coming in to show a lower than expected trade deficit of $43.7 billion for July, went unnoticed.

Next on tap would be the release of US ISM non-manufacturing PMI, which would be looked upon for some short-term trading impetus ahead of Australian macro data dump, due for release during early Asian session on Thursday.

   •  AUD: Well supported near term – ANZ

Technical levels to watch

Immediate support is pegged near 0.7945-40 zone, which if broken would turn the pair vulnerable to extend its slide back towards the 0.7900 handle before eventually dropping to an important support near the 0.7865 region (also coinciding with 50-day SMA). 

On the upside, the 0.80 handle, closely followed by the 0.8020-30 region, remains immediate strong hurdles to conquer, above which the pair is likely to dart towards multi-month highs resistance near 0.8065 area (touched on July 27).