USD/CHF struggling to move past 50-DMA

With a session peak at 0.9728 and daily low at 0.9696, the USD/CHF pair has been confined within a narrow trading band and is struggling to build on to Friday's up-move.

Currently trading around 0.9700 region, the pair's recovery seems to have lost upside momentum despite of a weaker Swiss monthly retail sales data, which seems to have been negated by a better-than-expected release of Swiss manufacturing PMI for September. 

Meanwhile, renewed Brexit-led market jitters is driving some safe-haven flow towards the Swiss Franc and has restricted the pair's recovery below an immediate strong hurdle at 50-day SMA region. 

Moving ahead, today's release of US ISM manufacturing PMI will be looked upon for fresh impetus.

Technical levels to watch

On a sustained weakness below 0.9700 handle, the pair is likely to extend the slide immediately towards 0.9660 horizontal support and eventually towards 0.9640-35 support area. On the flip side, 0.9730-35 region (50-day SMA) remains immediate strong resistance, which if conquered should boost the pair immediately towards 100-day SMA resistance near 0.9755 region. A convincing move above 100-day SMA resistance would now open room for continuation of the pair's upward trajectory further towards the very important 200-day SMA resistance near 0.9800 handle.