AUD/USD hangs near 0.7350 amid steady USD, risk-off mood

• AUD/USD remains subdued on Tuesday in the early European trading hours.
• The US Dollar Index stands strong above 94.30 with 0.03% gains.
• Higher Inflation risk, Fed’s tapering concerns exerts pressure on the riskier asset.

AUD/USD pauses the previous session’s gains on Tuesday amid risk-off mood. The pair opened higher albeit fizzled out rather quickly toward 0.7333 before recovering higher.  The gains were captured following the upbeat Australian business confidence. At the time of writing, AUD/USD is trading at 0.7348, down 0.08% for the day.

The US Dollar Index (DXY), which tracks the performance of the greenback against its six major rivals prints fresh gains near 94.40. Investors digested a combination of factors of higher inflation concerns, China headwinds and supply-chain bottlenecks weighing on traders' sentiments. It is worth noting that the S&P 500 Futures is trading at 4,332.25, down 0.49% for the day.

On the other hand, the aussie gains some off late momentum after the NAB Business Confidence Index jumped 13 in September from a downwardly revised -6 in August, pointing to the highest reading since May. Nevertheless, the sour risk sentiment over the renewed China’s Everngrande default risk after it missed two more dollar bond interest payments limits the gains for the risk barometer AUD/USD.

As for now, traders await the US JOLTS Job Opening data to gauge the market sentiment. 

AUD/USD additional levels