AUD/USD rises on upbeat market mood, closes in on 0.7000

• AUD/USD rose toward 0.7000 during American session on Monday.
• Greenback is struggling to find demand as risk rally picks up steam.
• NAB's Business Confidence and Business Conditions data will be released on Tuesday.

The AUD/USD pair closed the previous week virtually unchanged after failing to break above 0.7000. After staying relatively calm during the Asian and European trading hours, the pair gained traction in the second half of the day and touched a daily high of 0.6994. As of writing, the pair was up 0.47% on the day at 0.6981.

Risk rally hurts USD on Monday

The broad-based selling pressure surrounding the USD seems to be helping the pair push higher on Monday. The upbeat market mood, as reflected by strong gains witnessed in Wall Street's main indexes, in the absence of fundamental drivers is not allowing the greenback to find demand.

Despite the surging number of COVID-19 cases in the US, vaccine hopes continue to provide a boost to sentiment.

At the moment, the US Dollar Index is down 0.35% on the day and the major equity indexes in the US are up between 1.25% and 1.9%.

In the early trading hours of the Asian session, the National Australia Bank's (NAB) Business Confidence and Business Conditions data will be looked upon for fresh impetus. Later in the week, on Thursday, the Australian Bureau of Statistics will release its jobs report. 

Technical levels to watch for