It has been a busy morning here in the Asian session, with markets getting hit on the additional tariffs on Mexico.

The other news is that the important Chinese manufacturing PMI data got leaked out early and what’s more important is that it missed expectations.

The manufacturing PMI came in at 49.4 and services 54.3, with both below what economists were looking at.

This marks a further fall in the Chinese data which has really been on a downtrend in recent times and is continuing to hurt on the back of the US-China trade wars.

The AUD/USD didn’t respond to the official release all that much, but given the early leak, that is understandable.

The Aussie is also getting weighed down today thanks to some risk-off sentiment coming into the markets over the course of Asian trade, since the Trump tweet on Mexican tariffs.

In terms of where the Aussie sits technically, price is still holding the 0.6900 level, so, for now, it has really been quite strong given what we’ve seen this week. That includes the US Dollar Index rallying strongly as well as a couple of negative headlines today for risk assets.

That still suggests the AUD is actually strong, given that it is still holding up. If 0.6900 should drop then we might get some serious follow-through to the downside.