AUD/JPY Price Analysis: Bulls face resistance near 81.00

• AUD/JPY edges higher on Wednesday in the early Asian trading hours.
• Bulls remain hopeful above the 21-day SMA at 80.62.
• Momentum oscillators indicate the underlying bullish sentiment for the pair.

AUD/JPY prints mild gains in the Asian trading hours on Wednesday morning. After testing the high of 81.31 in the US session, the pair retreated toward 80.48. At the time of writing, AUD/JPY is trading at, 80.80, up 0.02% for the day.

AUD/JPY daily chart

Technically speaking, the pair has been taking support at the double bottom formation near 78.85 after testing high of 82.02 on September 3. The bullish slope line from the lows of 77.89 made on August 20 acts as a defensive for the AUD/JPY bulls.

Now, as the price sustained above the 21-day Simple Moving Average (SMA), this could mean a potential rise toward the 81.05 and the 81.50 horizontal resistance levels. Furthermore, the  Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) indicator trades near the midline with a bullish stance. Any uptick in the MACD would invite bulls to recapture September 7 high of 81.99.

Alternatively, a daily close below the 21-day SMA indicates bearish biasness in the cross-currency pair. AUD/JPY bears would take over the 80.35 horizontal support level as the first downside target followed by the low made on Thursday at 80.00.A break beneath the ascending trendline would certain the further downside of the pair toward the 79.55 horizontal support level.

AUD/JPY techncial levels