AUD/USD struggles around 0.7180 despite upbeat China trade data, US Inflation eyed

• AUD/USD is facing barricades around 0.7180 ahead of the US CPI.
• Upbeat China’s trade data has failed to cheer the aussie bulls.
• The DXY is trading vulnerable amid uncertainty over the US inflation, consensus indicates a stable figure.

The AUD/USD pair has displayed a subdued performance in the Asian session and is expected to showcase a similar performance in the European session.  The major is struggling to establish above 0.7180 despite the upbeat trade data by China’s National Bureau of Statistics.

In dollar-denominated terms, the Chinese imports have improved by 4.1% while exports have jumped firmly by 16.9%. The Trade Balance (USD) has landed at $78.76B, much higher than the estimates of 58B and the prior print of 51.12B. It is worth noting that Australia is a leading trader partner of China and Chinese trade data holds a significant impact on the antipodean.

It looks like the unexpected extreme hawkish stance by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has failed to cheer the antipodean. The RBA hiked its Official Cash Rate (OCR) by 50 basis points (bps) higher than the expectation of 25 bps. To corner the soaring inflation a jumbo rate hike looks optimal, however, its impact will also dent the employment generation ability of the Australian economy. Currently, the economy is facing the headwinds of lower job creation. The economy has added only 4k jobs in the labor market last month, extremely lower than the consensus of 30k.

On the dollar front, investors are awaiting the release of the US Consumer Price Index (CPI). The US dollar index (DXY) is displaying doubtful wild moves amid uncertainty over deviation in the annual inflation rate with respect to the consensus. As per the estimates, the US CPI is seen stable at 8.3% on an annual basis while the core CPI that excludes food and energy may shift lower to 5.9% from the prior print of 6.2%.