AUD/USD consolidates daily gains around 0.7780

• AUD/USD is closing in on 0.7200 on Wednesday.
• NZD's impressive performance helped AUD gather strength during Asian session.
• US Dollar Index posts small recovery gains following two-day decline.

The AUD/USD pair gained traction during the Asian trading hours and reached a fresh weekly high of 0.7796 before going into a consolidation phase. As of writing, AUD/USD was up 0.4% on the day at 0.7780.

AUD capitalizes on NZD rally

The sharp upsurge witnessed in the NZD/USD pair following the hawkish shift seen in the Reserve Bank of New Zealand's policy outlook helped positively-correlated AUD/USD push higher. NZD/USD is currently trading at its highest level in three months at 0.7309, rising more than 1% on a daily basis.

Meanwhile, the data from Australia showed that the Westpac Leading Index declined to 0.2% in April from 0.45% in March but this reading failed to trigger a noticeable market reaction.

On the other hand, the US Dollar Index, which closed the first two trading days of the week in the negative territory, is staging a technical correction and posting small daily gains at 89.75, limiting AUD/USD's upside for the time being.

There won't be any high-tier macroeconomic data releases featured in the US economic docket on Wednesday and the risk perception could impact the USD's market valuation. At the moment, the S&P 500 Futures and the Nasdaq Futures are both up 0.3%, suggesting that the greenback could have a tough time attracting investors in the second half of the day.

Technical levels to watch for