AUD/USD climbs to fresh 10-day high beyond 0.7300

AUD/USD continues to push higher during the American trading hours.
Broad-based USD weakness is providing a boost to AUD/USD.
Wall Street’s main indexes post strong gains following Powell’s remarks.

The AUD/USD pair preserved its bullish momentum during the American trading hours on Friday and reached its strongest level in 10 days at 0.7316. As of writing, the pair was up 1.1% on the day at 0.7312.

DXY falls sharply following Powell’s speech

The heavy selling pressure surrounding the greenback in the second half of the day fueled AUD/USD’s rally. While delivering his prepared remarks at the Jackson Hole Symposium on Friday, FOMC Chairman Jerome Powell refrained from delivering fresh hints at the timing of asset tapering and caused the USD to weaken against its rivals. As of writing, the US Dollar Index was down 0.42% on the day at 92.65.

Powell’s neutral tone caused a positive shift in market sentiment and helped the AUD capitalize on risk flows. Reflecting the upbeat mood, Wall Street’s three main indexes are up between 0.7% and 0.9%.

In the meantime, the data published by the US Bureau of Economic Analysis showed on Friday that the Core Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) Price Index stayed unchanged at 3.6% on a yearly basis in July as expected. Additionally, Personal Spending and Personal Income increase by 0.3% and 1.1%, respectively. Nevertheless, investors paid little to no attention to these figures as they released ahead of Powell’s speech.