AUD/USD consolidates RBA-led losses below 0.69

• RBA's Lowe says that they have an "easing bias."
• US Dollar Index rises above 98 on Tuesday.
• U.S:-China trade-dispute remains elevated.

The AUD/USD pair came under strong bearish pressure during the Asian trading hours and retraced yesterday's modest rebound. After dropping below the 0.69 mark, the pair has gone into a consolidation phase and was last down 0.51% on a daily basis at 0.6874.

Earlier today, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) in the minutes of its May meeting noted that a rate cut would be appropriate if no further improvements were witnessed in the labour market to trigger the initial selloff. Furthermore, following the RBA's publication, Governor Lowe said that they had an "easing bias" and announced that the board will consider the case for a rate cut in June to drag the pair even lower.

Commenting on the RBA headlines, "June is fully priced for a cut, and unlike the surprise pause in May, it seems that a June cut is more likely. A second cut is also priced - and was embedded in the SoMP forecasts - it is just down to timing. So we look for a June cut and leave August as the next timing for now, for a terminal rate of 1%,” TD Securities analysts said.

In addition to the RBA's dovish shift, the lack of developments pointing to a possible solution to the U.S.-China trade conflict continue to weigh on antipodeans. 

Later in the session, markets will be paying close attention to speeches by FOMC members Rosengren and Evans. The only data from the U.S. will be the existing home sales, which is likely to be ignored by the market participants. On the other hand, Westpac Leading Index will be featured in the U.S. economic docket on Wednesday.

Technical levels to watch for