AUD/USD buyers attack 0.7200 on PBOC inaction, Biden-Putin summit led optimism

• AUD/USD renews intraday high, extends three-week uptrend amid fresh risk-on mood.
• Hopes of de-escalation over Ukraine-Russia fears gain momentum on chatters concerning Biden-Putin summit.
• Recently cautious Fedspeak, upbeat Aussie PMI adds to the bullish bias.
• Qualitative catalysts will have more importance, Wednesday’s Aussie Wage Price Index eyed too.

AUD/USD takes the bids to refresh intraday high around 0.7200 while extending the previous three-week run-up during Monday’s Asian session.

The risk-barometer pair recently gained upside momentum amid positive headlines concerning the Russia-Ukraine issue. Also favoring the bulls is the People’s Bank of China’s (PBOC) inaction and upbeat prints of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s (CBA) February month PMI.

AFP recently quoted French President Emanuel Macron who proposed a summit including US President Joe Biden and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. The news also mentioned that both the parties have accepted the “principle” of a summit. Following the news, the White House said, “President Biden accepted in principle a meeting with President Putin following that engagement, again, if an invasion hasn’t happened.”

The news helped S&P 500 Futures to quickly reverse early Asian session losses while also dragging gold prices from the fresh eight-month high, marked before a few minutes.

It’s worth noting that the PBOC offered no surprise following its latest monetary policy meeting, keeping the benchmark Loan Prime Rate (LPR) of 3.7% unchanged. Further, higher than expected and prior readings of CBA Manufacturing and Services PMIs also underpin AUD/USD upside.

Additionally, the recently softer Fedspeak also weighs on the US Treasury yields and the US dollar, which in turn help AUD/USD buyers. That said, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago President and FOMC member Charles Evans said on Friday that the current Fed policy had been "wrong-footed" in the face of high inflation, but may not need to become restrictive. On the other hand, New York Federal Reserve Bank President John Williams and the No. 2 official on the Fed’s policy-setting panel mentioned, "I don’t see any compelling argument to taking a big step at the beginning."

To sum up, risk-on mood recently helped AUD/USD prices but the upcoming meetings/summits will be crucial for the near-term direction of the pair. Also important will be Wednesday’s Q4 Wage Price Index for Australia as the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) keeps refraining from hawkish comments.

Technical analysis

A sustained bounce off the 50-DMA, near 0.7170 by the press time, directs AUD/USD bulls towards the 100-DMA level surrounding 0.7245.