AUD/USD Analysis: good data not enough to offset dollar's demand

Valeria Bednarik FXStreet

AUD/USD Current Price: 0.7147

Wall Street's advance limited AUD/USD decline, risk skewed to the downside.
Solid consumption in the US leaned the scale in dollar's favor.

The AUD/USD pair peaked at 0.7198 at the beginning of the day, with the Aussie finding support in better-than-expected local employment figures. In March, the country added 25.7K new jobs, more than doubling the 12.0K expected, while the unemployment rate ticked up to 5.0% as expected, as the participation rate also increased to 65.7%. The recovery in jobs' creation was the result of a jump in full-time positions, up in the month by 48.3K, as part-time employment decreased by 22.6K. Positive data, however, was unable to offset the dismal mood, with Asian and European equities under pressure. The American currency soared on the back of strong US Retail Sales figures, which sent the pair to a fresh weekly low of 0.7136. The decline was contained by the solid performance of Wall Street, with the pair trading some 10 pips above this low ahead of the Asian session.

Australian and New Zealand markets will be closed amid Good Friday, with only Japan's market open during the upcoming hours. The 4 hours chart shows that the pair broke the base of the channel that lead the way since early April, with the base of the figure now being an immediate resistance at around 0.7160. In the mentioned chart, the 20 SMA gains bearish traction above the current level, but holds above the larger ones. Technical indicators entered negative territory, with the Momentum maintaining its downward slope and the RSI aiming to recover but around 43. The bearish case could gain momentum on a break below 0.7135, the immediate support.

Support levels: 0.7135 0.7090 0.7055

Resistance levels: 0.7070 0.7205 0.7250

View Live Chart for the AUD/USD

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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