AUDUSD, capped at 0.6325, approaches two-week lows at 0.6270

• The aussie remains close to two-week lows at 0.6270.
• A hawkish Fed has given a fresh boost to the USD.
• Weak services PMI data has dented greenback's strength.

The aussie is suffering on Thursday against a stronger greenback, following the Fed’s hawkish message after Wednesday’s monetary policy decision. The pair attempted to bounce up from 2-week lows at 0.9270 earlier today, although it was unable to find acceptance above 0.9300.

Fed’s hawkish rhetoric has boosted the greenback

The US dollar is rallying across the board after, buoyed by the Federal Reserve President Powell’s comments reiterating the bank’s commitment to continue tightening borrowing costs until inflation returns to the 2% target.

As was widely expected, the Fed raised its benchmark rate by 0.75%, the fourth such increase in a row. Beyond that, Fed’s Powell denied suggestions that the bank might have overtightened and signaled that interest rates may peak at levels beyond market expectations, which sent the dollar and US Treasury bonds surging.

The greenback has gone through a slight pullback on the US trading session, following weaker-than-expected US services’ activity data, although it has pared losses shortly afterwards.

According to data released by the Institute for Supply Management, October’s Services PMI slowed down to 54.4, from 56.7 in September, beyond the consensus of 55.5, with the employment and new orders gauges posting sharper than expected declines. These figures have dented the USD strength.

Earlier today, preliminary figures anticipated that non-farm productivity expanded well below expectations in the third quarter: 0.3% against the consensus 0.6%, with unit labor costs slowing down to 3.5% from 8.9% in the previous quarter.

On the positive side, initial jobless claims increased by 217K in the week of October 20 against expectations of a 220K rise.

Technical levels to watch