AUD/USD Analysis: weakening ahead of AU employment

AUD/USD Current Price: 0.6824

• Australian economy seen adding 10.0K new jobs in August.
• Wall Street initially fell following Fed’s hawkish rate cut, recovered ahead of the close
• AUD/USD technically bearish, at risk of falling further once below 0.6800.

The AUD/USD pair briefly pierced it’s previous weekly low to hit 0.6827, but quickly bounced from the level ahead of the US Federal Reserve announcement recovering on broad dollar’s weakness rather than anything else. Earlier in the day, Australia released the Westpac Leading Index for August, which fell 0.3% on a monthly basis, compared to a revised rise of 0.2% in July. Fed’s monetary policy decision sent the pair to a fresh eight-week low of 0.6811, as Wall Street plummeted with the hawkish cut, but trimmed loses ahead of the close.

Australian employment data coming next

Australia is set to release this Thursday, August employment data. The country is expected to have added 10.0K new jobs in the month after adding 41.1K in the previous month. The unemployment rate is seen ticking higher to 5.3% from 5.2%, although the participation rate is seen steady at 66.1%. Ahead of the employment report, New Zealand will release Q2 GDP, with the economy seen growing at a slower pace in the three months to July. New Zealand data would have a limited impact on the Aussie but still could introduce some noise in its crosses.

AUD/USD short-term technical outlook

The AUD/USD pair is now trading just below the critical 0.6830 region, poised to extend its decline according to technical readings in the 4 hours chart, as an intraday spike was rejected by sellers aligned around a bearish 20 SMA, while technical indicators gain bearish traction below their mid-lines. In the mentioned chart, the pair bottomed a handful of pips above its 100 and 200 SMA, which means it would now need to lose the 0.6800 level to confirm a bearish extension.

Support levels: 0.6800 0.6770 0.6735

Resistance levels: 0.6840 0.6885 0.6920