AUD/USD steadies near 0.69 after falling on uninspiring Australian jobs data
- Unemployment stays unchanged at 5.2% in Australia in May.
- US Dollar Index stays calm following yesterday's rebound.
The AUD/USD pair came under a renewed bearish pressure following the labour market data releases from Australia and dropped to its lowest level in nearly two weeks at 0.6901. As of writing, the pair was moving sideways in the lower half of its daily range, losing 0.27% on a daily basis.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics on Thursday announced that the unemployment rate in May remained steady at 5.2% to come in slightly better than the market expectation of 5.1%. Underlying details of the report further revealed that full-time employment increased by 2,400 following April's decline of 6,300.
Assessing the jobs report, “With the RBA believing that an unemployment rate of 4.5% (perhaps even lower if Assistant Governor Luci Ellis is to be believed) is now necessary to push inflation higher, and today's figure showing the gap between the current unemployment rate and the full employment rate as wide as ever, about the only conclusion you can draw is that the RBA will need to provide further monetary stimulus to bridge that gap,” ING analysts said.
In the second half of the day, weekly jobless claims and import/export price data from the U.S., which are likely to be ignored by the market participants, will be released. Ahead of these data, the US Dollar Index is virtually unchanged on a daily basis at 96.95.
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Author
Eren Sengezer
FXStreet
As an economist at heart, Eren Sengezer specializes in the assessment of the short-term and long-term impacts of macroeconomic data, central bank policies and political developments on financial assets.
