AUD/USD remains capped under the 0.6500 mark following RBA’s Bullock speech

AUD/USD remains on the defensive near 0.6491 amid the firmer USD.
US Initial Jobless Claims rose by 218K from a week earlier, stronger than expected.
RBA’s Bullock said the board is focused on bringing inflation down, and the evidence of inflation is encouraging.

Lallalit Srijandorn FXStreet

The AUD/USD pair extends its downside and holds below the 0.6500 mark during the early Asian session on Friday. The hawkish comments from Federal Reserve (Fed) officials and a stronger US Dollar (USD) weigh on the pair. AUD/USD currently trades around 0.6491, losing 0.01% on the day.

On Thursday, the US weekly Initial Jobless Claims fell to 218K for the week ended February 3 from the previous week of 227K, better than the estimation of 220K. The report indicated ongoing labor market resilience. Continuing Claims decreased by 23K to 1.891M in the week ended January 27. Finally, Wholesale inventories of merchant wholesalers lifted 0.4% MoM and were down 2.7% YoY.

Many Fed officials signaled that they were in no rush to lower borrowing costs until they were confident that inflation would return to the 2% target. On Thursday, Fed Richmond President Thomas Barkin reiterated that policymakers have time to be patient about the timing of rate cuts due to a solid labor market and ongoing disinflation. The US central bank has raised its policy rate by 525 basis points (bps) to the current 5.25% to 5.50% range since March 2022.

Late Thursday, Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) Governor Michele Bullock stated that the central bank is focused on bringing inflation down, and the evidence of inflation is encouraging. Bullock emphasized that the board hasn’t ruled out a further interest rate hike but neither has it ruled it in.

Dallas Fed L. Logan is set to speak later on Friday. In the absence of top-tier economic data from the US and Australia, risk sentiment will likely play a crucial role in the AUD/USD pair.

AUD/USD

Overview
Today last price	0.6494
Today Daily Change	-0.0025
Today Daily Change %	-0.38
Today daily open	0.6519

Trends
Daily SMA20	0.658
Daily SMA50	0.6654
Daily SMA100	0.6537
Daily SMA200	0.6574

Levels
Previous Daily High	0.654
Previous Daily Low	0.6516
Previous Weekly High	0.6624
Previous Weekly Low	0.6502
Previous Monthly High	0.6839
Previous Monthly Low	0.6525
Daily Fibonacci 38.2%	0.6525
Daily Fibonacci 61.8%	0.6531
Daily Pivot Point S1	0.651
Daily Pivot Point S2	0.65
Daily Pivot Point S3	0.6485
Daily Pivot Point R1	0.6535
Daily Pivot Point R2	0.655
Daily Pivot Point R3	0.6559

Author

Lallalit Srijandorn

FXStreet

Lallalit Srijandorn is a Parisian at heart. She has lived in France since 2019 and now becomes a digital entrepreneur based in Paris and Bangkok.

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