AUD/USD clings to upbeat jobs data-led gains, around 0.6875 region

The AUD/USD pair held on to the upbeat Australian jobs data-led intraday gains and is currently placed near the top end of its daily trading range, around the 0.6870-75 region.

The pair caught some aggressive bids during the Asian session on Thursday and recovered swiftly from over one-month lows set in the previous session following the release of better-than-expected December employment details.

Aussie supported by upbeat domestic data

According to the report, the Australian economy added 28.9K jobs in December as compared to consensus estimates pointing to a rise of 15K and the previous month's impressive reading of 38.5K (revised lower from 39.9K reported earlier).

Adding to this, the unemployment rate unexpectedly edged lower to 5.1% during the reported month as against 5.2% previous and expected. The data forced investors to trim bets that RBA will cut rates next month and prompted some short-covering move.

However, the prevailing cautious mood around equity markets, amid concerns of coronavirus outbreak in China, seemed to be the only factor keeping a lid on any strong follow-through positive move for the China-proxy Australian dollar.

The pair struggled to make it through the very important 200-day SMA and seemed rather unaffected by a subdued US dollar price action. An intraday slide in the US Treasury bond yields kept the USD bulls on the defensive and did little to influence the price action.

Hence, it will be prudent to wait for some strong follow-through buying before positioning for any further near-term appreciating move amid absent relevant market moving economic releases from the US.

Technical levels to watch