USD/CHF well bid for second straight session, around 0.97 handle

The USD/CHF pair built on previous session's strong up-move and touched a one-month high beyond the 0.9700 handle, albeit retreated few pips thereafter.

The pair on Thursday stalled the post-FOMC retracement and surged over 170-pips from sub-0.9500 level. The initial leg of up-move was supported by a goodish US Dollar recovery and the momentum gathered momentum after the pair decisively moved beyond the 0.9600 handle. 

A potential SNB intervention and (or) possibilities of some big stops being triggered could have attributed to the pair's strong overnight gains. Markets even shrugged off a sharp retracement in the US equity markets, which tends to benefit the Swiss Franc's safe-haven appeal, with a bout of short-covering dominating Thursday's up-move. 

The pair continued gaining traction through Asian session on Friday but now seems to have met with some fresh supply near 0.9720 region and has now retreated around 30-35 pips from session tops. Currently trading around 0.9685-90 region, traders now look forward to the release of advance US growth figures for the second quarter of 2017, due for release later during the NA session. 

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Technical levels to watch

Sustained move beyond 0.9725 level has the potential to lift the pair towards June monthly highs resistance near 0.9765-70 region and the momentum could further get extended towards the 0.9800 handle. On the flip side, any pull-back now seems to find support near 0.9675-70 region, below which the pair could drift back to 0.9635-30 horizontal support en-route the 0.9600 handle.