Forex - AUD/USD drilled by Chinese data

Investing.com - The Australian dollar continued sliding against its U.S. rival during Monday’s Asian session as concerning Chinese data points pressured the Aussie.

In Asian trading Monday, AUD/USD tumbled 0.44% to 0.9451. The pair was likely to find support at 0.9396, today’s low, and resistance at 0.9760, Tuesday’s high.

The Aussie’s move below 94 cents against the greenback was its first in 20 months. Data out of China, Australia’s largest export partner, was the culprit.

After a crackdown by Chinese officials on manipulators that use currency conversions to boost export data, Chinese exports showed an increase of just 1% last month. Exports to the U.S. and European Union, China’s two largest export markets, declined for a third consecutive month.

Imports fell 0.3%, well below the expected 6% increase. China's consumer inflation dropped to 2.1%, below the expected reading of 2.5%, while producer prices fell 2.9%. Analysts expected PPI to drop 2.5%. Retail sales rose 12.9%, which met expectations.

Fixed-asset investment and industrial production also met analysts’ expectations with year-over-year gains of 20.4% and 9.2%. China’s M2 money supply rose 15.8%, but that was below the expected 15.9% increase. New loans totaled 667.4 million yuan, but that missed expectations of 850 billion yuan and down from April's 792.9 billion yuan.

Australian markets are closed today in observance of the Queen's Birthday public holiday. Elsewhere, AUD/NZD fell 0.23% to 1.2023 though NZD/USD fell because like Australia, New Zealand counts China as its biggest export partner.

AUD/JPY rose 0.10% to 92.68 after Japan revised its first-quarter GDP reading to show growth of 4.1%. The initial reading was 3.5% growth.

In a separate report, the Ministry of Finance said that Japan’s current account balance rose to a seasonally adjusted JPY850 billion from JPY340 billion in April. Analysts expected an increase to JPY390 billion.