AUD/USD analysis: all eyes on employment data

Valeria Bednarik FXStreet

AUD/USD Current price: 0.7140

Australia expected to have added 15K new jobs in September.
Aussie technically bullish, but data will set the tone today.

The AUD/USD pair is marginally up daily basis at around 0.7140, reversing an early decline to 0.7111 triggered by RBA Meeting's Minutes. The document showed that policymakers are now concerned about tightening lending standards, saying that "it would be important to monitor the future supply of credit to ensure that economic activity continued to be appropriately supported." The central bank maintained the cash rate at a record low of 1.5% and seems unlikely that such rate will be changed until at least 2020. The pair recovered alongside indexes, and as dollar's demand remained subdued.

Australia will release today one of the most relevant reports for the local economy, the September monthly employment figures. According to experts' forecasts, the economy is expected to have added 15K new jobs in the month, while the unemployment rate is foreseen at 5.3%, despite an expected decline in the participation rate, to 65.6% from 65.7% in August. The country will also release the Westpac Leading Index for September, previously at 0.1%.

Ahead of the key figures, the pair offers a bullish stance in the short term, not far from a fresh 2-week high of 0.7150 reached in the American session. The 4 hours chart for the pair shows that a bullish 20 SMA has been leading the way higher, but also that sellers have capped the intraday advance around a bearish 100 SMA. Technical indicators in the mentioned chart have bounced from their midlines, maintaining upward slides but below their previous weekly highs, indicating buyers are still cautious. Today's data could be a make it or break it for the pair, with a bullish continuation expected on a run through 0.7160, the 61.8% retracement of the latest daily slump.

Support levels: 0.7110 0.7085 0.7040

Resistance levels: 0.7160 0.7195 0.7220

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Author

Valeria Bednarik

FXStreet

Valeria Bednarik was born and lives in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Her passion for math and numbers pushed her into studying economics in her younger years.

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