AUD/USD meanders around 0.7300 after a weaker Australian jobs report

The Australian dollar slides for the third consecutive day, down 0.25%, trading at 0.7309 in the New York session at the time of writing.  The AUD/USD traded within the 0.7314-40 range during the APAC session, but Australian economic data spurred the downfall.

Australian Employment Change dropped 46.3K, and the unemployment rate jumped above 5%

On Thursday, the Australian economic docket featured the Consumer Inflation Expectations for November, which rose 1% higher than in October, up to 4.6%, from 3.6% in October. The market ignored that data, but employment figures collapsed, triggering a sell-off on the pair. The Australian Bureau of Statistics revealed that Employment Change for October fell 46.3K, sharply lower than the 50K rise expected by analysts, spurring a jump in the Unemployment Rate, from 4.7% to 5.2%. 

It is worth noting that the jobs survey was taken from September 26 to October 9, when lockdown restrictions in New South Wales were just being eased, while Victoria state was still lockdown.

Meanwhile, the US economic docket reported US inflation figures, which jumped above 6% for the first time in 30-years. It seems that AUD/USD traders priced in the move, as witnessed by price action stabilizing around the 0.7300-40 range. On Thursday, the US economic docket is light due to the observation of the US Veterans Day Holiday.

AUD/USD Price Forecast: Technical outlook

The daily chart shows that the pair tests the 0.7300, extending the downward move to three days. On its way down, it broke the 50 and the 100-day moving averages (DMA’s), which in tandem with the 200-DMA, indicates the AUD/USD pair has a downward bias.

On the way down, the first support level to break is 0.7300. A breach of the latter would expose the September 30 low at 0.7169, but an upslope trendline that travels from August 20 low towards the September 30 low, lie around the 0.7230-50 range, and act as support before reaching the September 30 low.