AUD/USD is trading at 0.7130 and between a range of 0.7159 and 0.7113 as the price corrects from daily lows. However, the recent news cycle around the focus on the Omicron variant suggests that mobility divergence and reopening strategies will shift back on the radar screen for AUD traders this week as cases are detected locally. This leaves a downside bias on the higher-yielding commodity currencies. 

Australia has already paused plans to reopen its borders to some foreign nationals amid fears over the new Covid variant. The nation was due to allow vaccinated skilled migrants and international students entry from 1 December. But Prime Minister Scott Morrison said a delay of a fortnight was “necessary” following Omicron’s discovery.  However, Australia, which has so far found five Omicron infections among travellers arriving in the country, has not announced rolling back any of the restrictions it had already eased earlier this month.