The Australian dollar remains under pressure, falling below the US 77 cent level for the first time since late December in recent trade.

Here’s the scoreboard as at 3.15pm AEDT.

AUD/USD 0.7700 , -0.0015 , -0.19%
AUD/JPY 81.43 , -0.44 , -0.54%
AUD/CNH 4.8739 , -0.0065 , -0.13%
AUD/EUR 0.6275 , -0.0006 , -0.10%
AUD/GBP 0.5527 , -0.0009 , -0.16%
AUD/NZD 1.0683 , 0.0011 , 0.10%

After opening the day at .7715, the AUD/USD fell to .7699 as Chinese markets opened, leaving it at the lowest level since December 22 last year.

It’s now lost over 5% since late January.

After breaking various technical levels over the past few sessions, the latest slide coincides with a steep drop in Chinese bulk commodity futures on Monday.

Ongoing concerns about trade relations between the US and China, along with positioning adjustments ahead of this Wednesday’s US Federal Reserve policy announcement, may also be contributing to the Aussie’s recent weakness.

“AUD/USD has been constrained within an effective 0.77-0.79 cent range thus far in March. The pair is now in imminent danger of extending this range to the downside,” says the National Australia’s Bank’s FX Strategy Team.

“In particular, if the Trump administration delivers on its threat to impose a broad range of new tariffs on imports from China and so going well beyond the recent decisions regarding steel, aluminium, solar panels and washing machines.”

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