AUD/USD consolidates gains near multi-month highs above 0.77

After reaching its highest level since March 21 at 0.7740, the AUD/USD seems to have lost its bullish momentum, but it continues to preserve its daily gains above the 0.77 handle. At the moment, the pair is trading at 0.7727, gaining 0.6% on the day.

Today's upsurge seems to be fueled by a stronger aussie rather than a greenback sell-off. In fact, the US Dollar Index is now just a little below its session high. As of writing, the index was at 95.67, up 0.13% on the day. Today's statements by the FOMC Chair Yellen nor the macro data released from the U.S. couldn't provide any fresh catalysts. Yellen re-read yesterday's prepared statement before the Senate Banking Committee on Thursday and responded to questions from the Committee members. None of her remarks featured any comments on the monetary policy.

• Fed's Yellen speech: Import prices are rising at a modest rate

The primary boost to the aussie came from the Chinese data in the Asian session. China, Australia's biggest trade partner, announced that the trade balance in June advanced to $42.7B from $40.79B to beat the market expectation of $42.44B. Moreover, imports on a yearly basis expanded by 17.2% in June after recording an increase of 14.8% in May. 

Lael Brainard, a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, will be coming up next at the top of the hour but the consolidation theme is likely to persist for the remainder of the session. There are no data due from Australia in the Asian session either.

Technical outlook

With today's rise, the pair is marching towards its fourth positive daily close in a row, pushing the daily RSI indicator to the overbought area above the 70 mark. Before the pair gathers more bullish momentum, it's likely to make a technical correction. On the upside, the initial hurdle aligns at 0.7750 (Mar. 21 high) followed by 0.7780 (Nov. 8 high) and 0.7835 (Apr. 21, 2016, high). On the flip side, supports could be seen at 0.7700 (psychological level), 0.7620 (Fib. 23.6% of May 9/June 30 rise) and 0.7570 (Jul. 5 low).

• AUD: Benefitted from factors weighing on the USD - Westpac