AUD/USD analysis: Australian employment figures to be a make it or break it

Valeria Bednarik FXStreet

AUD/USD Current price: 0.7101

Aussie surges on positive US-China trade war headlines.
Australian employment data up next, focus on full-time employment creation.

Following a soft start to the day, the Australian dollar finally came back to life, breaking its consolidative range against the greenback to the upside on the back of encouraging news about the US-China trade war. According to "people briefed on the matter," the Trump administration is willing to reopen talks with Beijing before implementing additional tariffs on Chinese imports. Despite the US equities were unable to hold on to gains triggered by the positive headlines, the AUD/USD pair settled around 0.7170 ahead of the Asian opening. Earlier in the day, the country released the Westpac Consumer Confidence Index, which came in at -3.0% for September, following a -2.3% in August. The decline in confidence was the combined result of rising mortgage rates and political woes, according to the official report.

Australia is set to release its August employment figures this Thursday. The country is expected to have added 15.0K new jobs in the month after losing 3.9K in July. The unemployment rate is expected to remain unchanged at 5.3%, despite the participation rate is foreseen rising to 65.6%. As usual, the key will be on full-time employment, which could be disappointing according to seasonal stats, as August tends to be a weak month for employment.

The pair trades at its highest for the week, but still inside Friday's range. In the short-term, and according to the 4 hours chart, the risk is skewed to the upside, as the pair broke above its 20 SMA, now over 40 pips below the current level, while technical indicators head higher well above their midlines, with uneven strength. In the mentioned chart, the 100 and 200 SMA maintain strong bearish slopes above the current level, suggesting that the ongoing advance could end up being just a correction.

Support levels: 0.7130 0.7095 0.7070

Resistance levels: 0.7180 0.7210 0.7240

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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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