AUD/USD slips on rising trade tensions, struggling at 0.7300

• The new week sees a limited bearish slip following risk-off headlines over the weekend.
• Monday promises thin action ahead of the RBA's Tuesday showing.

The AUD/USD finds itself at the bottom end of a small but significant bearish gap, keeping the major pair hobbled at the 0.7300 handle.

This week sees a quiet open for the Aussie on the economic calendar, but another showing of the Reserve Bank of Australia's latest Meeting Minutes is slated for late Monday (early Tuesday in GMT), and traders will be looking in to see how the Aussie central bank chooses to grapple with the still-lopsided housing market within Australia's domestic economy, and hoping to glean a hint of how far away the RBA could be from any future interest rate hikes, with current expectations laying far over the horizon in late 2019.

Although the AUD/USD did close higher last week for the third week in a row, bullish pressure continue to mount overall for the Antipodean major pair, with China-bearish trade headlines holding a dark cloud over the Aussie in broader markets.

AUD/USD Levels to watch

Despite the fundamentals leaning into the neutral-to-bearish camp, technical readings are still teasing hints for a further move higher, according to FXStreet's own Valeria Bednarik: "as the new week begins, the daily chart offers a bullish stance, as the pair broke above its 100 DMA while the 20 DMA gains upward strength well below it. Technical indicators in the mentioned chart maintain their upward strength, with the Momentum in extreme overbought readings and the RSI currently at 65. In the 4 hours  chart and for the shorter term, the risk is also skewed to the upside, as the pair surged following a test of a bullish 20 SMA, now trading above all of its moving averages, while technical indicators barely retreated from overbought readings, rather reflecting decreasing volume at the end of the day than suggesting downward exhaustion."

 support levels: 0.7315 0.7280 0.7235   

Resistance levels: 0.7340 0.7380 0.7420