AUD/USD struggles to extend early gains on decline in Australia's Unemployment Rate

Upbeat Aussie Unemployment rate fails to draw stronger bids for AUD/USD.
However, jobs growth slowed in January, taking the shine off the decline in the jobless rate.
The pair remains vulnerable to a continued rise in Treasury yields.

Omkar Godbole FXStreet Contributor

A bigger-than-expected drop in Australia's jobless rate struggles to draw more substantial buying pressure for the commodity-sensitive Aussie dollar. The pair clocked a high of 0.7764 soon before the data release and was last seen trading at 0.7762, having hit a low of 0.7724 on Wednesday.

Australia's jobless rate dipped to 6.4% in January, versus expectations for a drop to 6.5% from December's 6.6%. However, the economy added 29.1K jobs in January versus expectations for 40K additions, marking a slowdown from December's job growth of 50K. Fulltime Employment rose 59K in January versus 35.7K in December.

The decline in the jobless rate is likely being overshadowed by the slowdown in the job growth and keeping buyers from putting a strong bid under the AUD.

Nevertheless, the path of least resistance appears to be on the higher side given the expectations of a new commodities boom driven by a rebounding global economy, massive stimulus, and supply shortages. Copper, oil, and other commodities have already rallied to multi-month highs in recent days, lending support to the Aussie dollar.

However, a continued rise in the US 10-year Treasury note may complicate matters for AUD/USD bulls. The benchmark yield has risen by 20 basis points this month on the back of rising oil prices and upbeat US data. It is trading at 1.26% at press time, having declined from 1.33% to 1.27% on Wednesday.

Technical levels

AUD/USD

Overview
Today last price	0.7762
Today Daily Change	0.0010
Today Daily Change %	0.13
Today daily open	0.7752

Trends
Daily SMA20	0.7701
Daily SMA50	0.7675
Daily SMA100	0.7453
Daily SMA200	0.7239

Levels
Previous Daily High	0.7772
Previous Daily Low	0.7724
Previous Weekly High	0.7773
Previous Weekly Low	0.765
Previous Monthly High	0.782
Previous Monthly Low	0.7592
Daily Fibonacci 38.2%	0.7742
Daily Fibonacci 61.8%	0.7753
Daily Pivot Point S1	0.7726
Daily Pivot Point S2	0.7701
Daily Pivot Point S3	0.7678
Daily Pivot Point R1	0.7775
Daily Pivot Point R2	0.7798
Daily Pivot Point R3	0.7824

Author

Omkar Godbole

FXStreet Contributor

Omkar Godbole, editor and analyst, joined FXStreet after four years as a research analyst at several Indian brokerage companies.

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