AUD/USD mildly bid in Asia on upbeat Westpac consumer confidence

AUD/USD is enjoying marginal gains in Asia after the Aussie Westpac consumer confidence number for September printed at 2.5% vs. previous month's dismal reading of -1.2%.

The currency pair successfully defended the psychological support of 0.80 yesterday, although the rebound looks anemic. At press time, the spot traded at 0.8025 levels.

Things are starting to look more optimistic for the USD

Kathleen Brooks from CityIndex says, " on paper things are starting to look more optimistic for the dollar:

• CFTC speculative positioning showed that dollar shorts had risen to their highest level since early 2013, this can be a sign that a change in trend is on the horizon.
• US Treasury yields have had a rip-roaring couple of days, with the 10-year yield rising nearly 10 basis points. US Treasury yields normally have a strong positive correlation with USD/JPY. In the last year the correlation between 10-year yields and USD/JPY has been a significant 0.71.
• Economic surprises from the US have recovered, and a few more better than expected data releases later this week could see positive surprises start to outpace negative surprises.

Key things to watch out for over the next 24 hours

The US August PPI release is the key thing to watch out for today. On Thursday, Australia will publish the monthly jobs data and China will release the retail sales and industrial production figure. RBA's Assistant Governor Debelle would take center stage at 23:15 GMT today. The central banker may jawbone the Aussie.

AUD/USD Technical Outlook

FXStreet Chief Analyst Valeria Bednarik writes-

"The 4 hours chart for the pair puts the risk towards the downside as the price develop below its 20 SMA ever since the week started, with an advance up to its meeting selling interest, whilst in the same chart, the RSI indicator has resumed its decline, currently around 49. The  Momentum indicator aims higher but within negative territory,  with the pair only with chances of turning short term bullish on a steady advance beyond 0.8060, the immediate resistance."