Under Pressure Early On

Australian assets are under some pressure early on. Softer official Chinese PMI data was seen over the weekend, and a new COVID-19 case in Perth has resulted in a 5 day lockdown for the city.

• Data earlier in the session did show that PMI rose to joint-survey high of 57.2 in January, however this failed to reverse the tide of negative sentiment.
• AUD/USD last trades at 0.7613, down 31 pips on the session, the pair is just above session lows of 0.7606.
• AUDUSD maintains a bearish tone despite the recovery from the week's lows. The move lower has seen the pair trade below support at 0.7659, Jan 18 low. Scope is seen for a deeper pullback as part of a corrective cycle that is allowing a recent overbought condition to unwind. Attention is on 0.7590, the 50-day EMA where a break would strengthen a bearish case. On the upside, 0.7782 marks a firm resistance.
• It is a packed data session from Australia to kick off the week:

- 0000GMT/0800HKT/1`00AEDT - Australia Jan Melbourne Institute Inflation

- 0030GMT/0830HKT/1`30AEDT - Australia Jan ANZ Job Advertisements

- 0030GMT/0830HKT/1`30AEDT - Australia Dec Housing Finance Data

- 0530GMT/1330HKT/1630AEDT - Australia Jan Commodity Index

• Markets also await RBA cash rate target, payroll data, trade data, retail sales and several RBA speeches.