AUD/USD: No takers for Aussie despite big beat on China trade data

• AUD/USD continues to report losses despite upbeat China data. 
• China's imports and exports rose sharply in December, beating expectations by a big margin. 

AUD/USD is finding little love even though China's December trade data bettered estimates by a big margin, indicating the world's second-largest economy might have bottomed out. 

The data released soon before press time showed China's exports in yuan terms jumped 9% year-on-year in December, beating the estimate of a 2.8% rise by a big margin and up from the preceding month's 1.3% growth. 

The sharp rise in exports is a telltale sign of improving global demand conditions. 

Meanwhile, imports surged by 17.7% contrary to an expected drop of 1.4%, signaling a strengthening of domestic demand. 

So far, however, the upbeat data has failed to move the needle on the Aussie dollar, a proxy for China, leaving the AUD/USD pair at session lows near 0.6890. 

The currency, however, may recover some losses, if the details of the report (yet to be released) show China's surplus with the US dropped sharply in December. 

The US and China are set to sign the phase one trade deal on Wednesday. 

Technical levels