AUD/USD snaps three-days of winning streak, falls to 0.7320

The AUD/USD pair snapped three consecutive days of winning streak and traded with bearish bias on Friday, albeit has managed to hold above 0.7300 handle.

Currently trading around 0.7315-20 region, the pair initially rose closer yesterday's three-week high after surprising trade balance data. In fact, Australia's trade balance for Nov. came-in to show a surplus of A$1.2 billion, for the first time since early 2014, as against an expected deficit of A$0.5 billion and A$1.54 billion deficit posted in the previous month. 

The pair, however, failed to capitalize on early gains and turned lower amid stalling greenback selling pressure as investors turned cautious ahead of the key monthly jobs report from the US, scheduled for release later during NA session. 

The headline NFP number is expected to show that the US economy added 178K new jobs during December and the unemployment rate ticked higher to 4.7%. However, the average hourly earnings growth would be looked upon for its implication on inflation and would provide fresh insight over the Fed's monetary policy stance in 2017. An upbeat reading would reaffirm market expectations of additional Fed rate-hike action and would eventually attract fresh selling pressure around the higher-yielding currencies - like the Aussie. 

Technical levels to watch

From current levels, 20-day SMA near 0.7300 handle is likely to act as immediate support below which the pair is likely to slide towards 0.7260 support area, en-route 0.7240-35 strong horizontal support. On the upside, 0.7345-50 area now seems to have emerged as immediate resistance, which if cleared is likely to boost the pair further towards 0.7375-80 intermediate resistance ahead of 0.7400 round figure mark.