AUD/USD pares earlier gains from the Asian session, trades near the lows

But near-term bias remains undefined as price continues to sit between the two key hourly moving averages. The aussie benefited from the kiwi's spike earlier in Asian trading - as a result of better NZ business confidence - and AUD/USD rose to a high of 0.7283.

Price tested the week's high of 0.7282 before tailing off and as the session progressed we're back near unchanged levels on the day for the pair. As with the rest of markets, there hasn't been much notable action as the focus is solely on the FOMC meeting to come later on.

And the next directional move in the aussie will depend on a break of either side of the key hourly moving averages highlighted above: 100-hour MA (red line) @ 0.7268 or the 200-hour MA (blue line) @ 0.7237.

In the bigger picture, the trend of lower highs and lowers lows remain very much intact still despite the aussie's recent rise against the dollar and it would require a move back above 0.7400 to break the bearish pattern there.