USD/CHF steadies above 0.9700 ahead of Powell's speech

• USD/CHF rebounds after dropping 0.9650 earlier in the day.
• Risk aversion in American session allowed USD to gather strength against its rivals.
• Investors wait for FOMC Chairman Jerome Powell's speech on economy. 

The USD/CHF fell to its lowest level in more than two weeks at 0.9638 on Wednesday and spent the first half of the day moving sideways near 0.9650 on Thursday.

USD capitalizes on souring risk sentiment

However, with risk-off flows providing a boost to the greenback during the American session, the pair turned north and erased the majority of Wednesday's losses. As of writing, the pair was up 0.55% on the day at 0.9703.

Although the better-than-expected preliminary Markit Manufacturing PMI data from the US caused the US Dollar Index to fall toward 99, revived concerns over a protracted US-China conflict caused the mood to change.

Several news outlets reported that Chinese officials said China would retaliate if the US were to impose coronavirus-related sanctions. Wall Street's main indexes fell sharply on this development and the USD gathered strength against its rivals. As of writing, the US Dollar Index was up 0.2% on the day at 99.36.

At the bottom of the hour, 1830 GMT, FOMC Chairman Jerome Powell will be delivering his prepared remarks on the current state of the economy and the coronavirus crisis.

Technical levels to watch for