AUD/USD slides farther below 0.79 handle

The AUD/USD pair remained under some selling pressure for the second consecutive session and held weaker below the 0.7900 handle through early European session.

The pair failed to build on last week's recovery move from near one-month lows and faltered ahead of the key 0.80 psychological mark amid strong US Dollar recovery overnight. The pair has now retreated back closer to 0.7880 horizontal support as investors continued to unwind bearish USD bets in anticipation of a possible hawkish rhetoric from the Fed Chair Janet Yellen at the Jackson Hole Symposium. 

Adding to this, a slight deterioration in investors' risk appetite, following the US President Donald Trump's threat for a government shutdown over the Mexican border wall funding further boosted the greenback's safe-haven appeal against its Australian counterpart. 

   •  Forex Today: Trump dents sentiment in Asia

Meanwhile, a mildly weaker tone around commodity space, especially copper, also did little to lend any support to commodity-linked currency and stall the pair's slide for the second consecutive session.

Short-term traders would now take cues from today's release of new home sales data from the US. Investors' focus, however, would remain glued to the very important Jackson Hole Symposium, which would be looked upon for some fresh insights over the Fed's near-term monetary policy outlook in order to determine the next leg of directional move for higher-yielding currencies - like the Aussie.

Technical levels to watch

A follow through selling pressure has the potential to continue dragging the pair further towards 0.7830-25 horizontal support en-route the 0.7800 handle. On the flip side, any recovery move now seems to confront immediate resistance near the 0.7925-30 region, above which the pair is likely to move beyond 0.7950-60 supply zone and aim towards reclaiming the 0.80 handle.