AUD/USD skids below 0.7500 on weak China PMI data, PCE inflation eyed

• AUD/USD has plunged below 0.7500 amid the underperformance of China Manufacturing PMI.
• A short-lived pullback in DXY is likely to find sellers soon.
• Going forward, US Core PCE inflation data will be the key event to watch out for.

The AUD/USD pair has been sluggish this week, trading inside a narrow trading range of about 82 pips, as the asset awaits a possible catalyst to propel it further north. Having formed a range at the outset, the major has dropped lower and is now auctioning back and forth again in a range of 0.7478-0.7486. This is the second consecutive negative double distribution trading session for the asset.

During the Asian trading session, the Australian dollar has taken a beating after the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing (CFLP) announced a disappointing monthly Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) on Thursday. The Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) for March was 49.5, which was lower than both the expectation and the prior reading of 49.9 and 50.2. It is worth mentioning that Australia is a major exporter to China, and the country's economic indicators have suffered as a result of the country's poor performance.

Aside from that, the Australian Building Permits data has failed to provide any support for the Australian dollar versus the USD. Despite the fact that the monthly Building Permits data came in at 43.5 percent, it was much higher than the street prediction of 10 percent and the previous print of -27.99 percent.

Meanwhile, the US dollar index (DXY) has had a brief reversal after plummeting over the previous two trading days. Ahead of Thursday's release of the Core Personal Consumption Expenditure (PCE) inflation data, the Dollar Index (DXY) is swinging in a tight range of 97.68 to 97.94. Monthly and yearly Core PCE inflation are expected to be 0.4 percent and 5.5 percent, respectively, according to preliminary estimates.