USD/CHF taps 0.9200 mark amid stronger USD, lacks follow-through

• A goodish pickup in the USD demand pushed USD/CHF to multi-day tops on Tuesday.
• Stronger US CPI print cemented hawkish Fed expectations and remained supportive.
• COVID-19 jitters benefitted the safe-haven CHF and might cap the upside for the pair.

The USD/CHF pair jumped to multi-day tops during the early North American session, with bulls now awaiting a sustained move beyond the 0.9200 round-figure mark.

The pair gained strong positive traction on Tuesday and built on the previous day's modest bounce from the 0.9130 area, or near four-week lows. The uptick was exclusively sponsored by a goodish pickup in the US Dollar demand, though worries about the new COVID-19 variants might cap gains for the USD/CHF pair.

The USD remained supported by expectations that the Fed is all set to tighten its monetary policy stance sooner than anticipated. This was reinforced by Tuesday's hotter-than-expected US consumer inflation figures, which showed that the headline CPI accelerated to a 5.4% YoY rate in June from the 5.0% previous.

This, to a larger extent, helped offset a softer tone surrounding the US Treasury bond yields. However, worries about the economic fallout from the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus underpinned the safe-haven Swiss Franc. This, in turn, kept a lid on any further gains for the USD/CHF pair.

Hence, it will be prudent to wait for some strong follow-through buying before traders start positioning for any further appreciating move. Nevertheless, the USD/CHF pair, for now, seems to have stalled its recent sharp retracement slide from three-month tops, around the 0.9275 region, touched earlier this month.

Technical levels to watch