Firmer Tone

A quiet session on Monday saw the greenback retreat to its lowest level in over a month, despite rising yields. AUD/USD rose as high as 0.7785 before paring the advance, last trades at 0.7762, up 3 pips on the session.

• Elsewhere, Rio Tinto reported production figures which showed its flagship iron ore division has made its best start to a year since 2018 as exports by Brazilian rival Vale underwhelmed. Rio Tinto shipped 77.79 million tonnes from Western Australia in the first three months of the year, a 7% increase Y/Y, in line with forecasts by Macquarie but below the 80 million tonnes forecast by UBS. The company remains on track to ship between 325 million - 340 million tonnes this year, despite Tropical Cyclone Seroja significantly slowing exports in mid April.
• From a technical perspective AUD/USD maintains a firmer tone following last week's break of 0.7677, Apr 7 high. The move higher also resulted in a breach of trendline resistance drawn off the Feb 25 high and note, price is back above the neckline of a recent head and shoulders reversal pattern. An ability to remain above the 50-dma would strengthen a bullish case. Initial firm support is at 0.7635, Feb 14 low. A break would be bearish.
• Another quiet session for data, ANZ Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence is released at the bottom of the hour, while the minutes of the April RBA meeting will be released at 0230BST/1230AEST, the minutes are not expected to move markets after a low key meeting in April.