AUD/USD fails ahead of 0.77 handle, surrenders daily gains to over 1-month tops

   •  Rejected at 200-DMA despite USD weakness.
   •  An uptick in US bond yields prompts profit-taking slide.
   •  US second-tier data eyed for fresh trading impetus.

The AUD/USD pair stalled its recent bullish trajectory just ahead of the 0.7700 handle and has now surrendered all of its daily gains to over one-month tops.

The pair's retracement of around 35-pips since the early European session lacked any fundamental catalyst and could be solely attributed to some profit taking, despite a weaker tone surrounding the US Dollar. 

Against the backdrop of this week's strong upsurge of nearly 200-pips from the key 0.75 psychological mark, a goodish uptick in the US Treasury bond yields seems to be only factor prompting traders to take some profits off higher-yielding currencies - like the Aussie, from closer to the very important 200-day SMA barrier. 

Further downside, however, remained cushioned amid prevalent positive trading sentiment around commodity space, which tends to underpin demand for the commodity-linked Australian Dollar.

Traders will now take cues from today's relatively lighter US economic docket, featuring the release of Empire State Manufacturing Index, Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization Rate.

Technical levels to watch

A follow-through retracement below mid-0.7600s is likely to accelerate the profit-taking slide towards 0.7620 level en-route the 0.7600 handle. On the upside, the 0.7695-0.7700 region (200-day SMA) remains an immediate strong hurdle, which if conquered is likely to lift the pair immediately towards 0.7725-30 supply zone.