NZD/USD fails to recover above 0.73, moves sideways in a tight range

After easing to a fresh session low at 0.7283 in the early NA session, the NZD/USD pair started to retrace its losses but struggled to move above the 0.73 mark. As of writing, the pair was trading at 0.7294, losing 0.35% on the day.

The pair's price action seems to be dominated by the greenback movements on Monday. Following last Friday's sharp drop, the US Dollar Index was able to start a technical correction on the first trading day of the week as the buck benefited from an empty economic calendar. Although the DXY withdrew from its session high of 93.40, it's still up 0.27% on the day at 93.25.

On the other hand, the demand for the commodity-sensitive kiwi seems to be impacted negatively by the falling crude oil prices. At the moment, the barrel of West Texas Intermediate is trading at $48, losing 1.75% on the day.

There are no data scheduled to be released from New Zealand on Tuesday, and the pair is likely to remain in its recent trading range during the first half of Tuesday. Later in the day, retail sales and import/export price indexes from the U.S. will be looked upon for fresh impetus. A higher-than-expected growth in retail sales could support the greenback's recent recovery while a soft reading is likely to put the USD under pressure as it would point towards a subdued inflation in the near-term.

Technical outlook

A daily close below the 0.73 mark could help the technical pressure stay alive. Moreover, the RSI indicator on the daily graph is also supporting the bearish outlook as it remains between the 50 and 30 handles. 0.7350 (50-DMA/10-DMA) aligns as the initial hurdle ahead of 0.7415 (Aug. 7 high) and 0.7500 (psychological level). On the flip side, supports could be seen at  0.7250 (Aug. 10 low), 0.7200 (psychological level/Jul. 11 low) and 0.7125 (Jun. 6 low).

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