AUD/USD hammered below 0.7600 to 4-week lows amid slump in commodities space

The AUD/USD pair accelerated Thursday's sharp slide and tumbled below the 0.7600 handle to a four week low during early NA session.

A larger-than-expected drop in the US weekly jobless claims provided additional legs to the already stronger greenback, with the key US Dollar Index surging through the 102.00 handle to fresh multi-week tops and dragging the pair to its lowest level since early Feb.

In fact, the number of filing first-time claims for state unemployment insurance collapsed to 223K during the week ended Feb. 24, marking the lowest reading since March 1973, and triggered a fresh wave of up-move in the US treasury bond yields, eventually driving investors away from higher-yielding currencies - like the Aussie. 

This coupled with the ongoing slump in commodity space further aggravated the selling pressure around commodity-linked currencies, including the Australian Dollar.

Moreover, possibilities of some stops getting triggered, on a decisive break below 0.7610 important support, might have also collaborated to the pair's sharp downslide since mid-European session. 

Technical levels to watch

A follow through weakness below 0.7580 level should continue dragging the pair further towards its next support near 0.7555 level, en-route the very important 200-day SMA support near 0.7525-20 region.

On the flip side, any recovery attempt might now confront immediate resistance near 0.7600-05 region, above which a short-covering bounce could lift the pair further towards 0.7645-50 support turned resistance area.