Australian Dollar slumps against US Dollar as hawkish RBA bets fade

AUD/USD declines to near 0.7130 amid concerns over the continuation of the RBA’s policy tightening cycle.
Market experts doubt the RBA’s policy tightening continuation, following weak Australian employment data.
Investors await fresh cues regarding US-Iran negotiations on peace deal.

Sagar Dua FXStreet

The Australian Dollar (AUD) is down 0.25% to near 0.7130 against the US Dollar (USD) during the European trading session on Friday. The Aussie pair faces intense selling pressure as fading hawkish Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) bets, following the release of the weak Australian employment data for April, have diminished the appeal of the antipodean.

Australian Dollar Price Today

The table below shows the percentage change of Australian Dollar (AUD) against listed major currencies today. Australian Dollar was the weakest against the Swiss Franc.

	USD	EUR	GBP	JPY	CAD	AUD	NZD	CHF
USD		0.14%	0.03%	0.08%	0.13%	0.28%	0.30%	-0.06%
EUR	-0.14%		-0.11%	-0.06%	-0.02%	0.16%	0.17%	-0.20%
GBP	-0.03%	0.11%		0.06%	0.13%	0.25%	0.29%	-0.10%
JPY	-0.08%	0.06%	-0.06%		0.07%	0.21%	0.23%	-0.16%
CAD	-0.13%	0.02%	-0.13%	-0.07%		0.13%	0.16%	-0.21%
AUD	-0.28%	-0.16%	-0.25%	-0.21%	-0.13%		0.03%	-0.37%
NZD	-0.30%	-0.17%	-0.29%	-0.23%	-0.16%	-0.03%		-0.39%
CHF	0.06%	0.20%	0.10%	0.16%	0.21%	0.37%	0.39%

The heat map shows percentage changes of major currencies against each other. The base currency is picked from the left column, while the quote currency is picked from the top row. For example, if you pick the Australian Dollar from the left column and move along the horizontal line to the US Dollar, the percentage change displayed in the box will represent AUD (base)/USD (quote).

The data showed on Thursday that the Australian Unemployment Rate jumped to 4.5%, while it was expected to remain steady at 4.3%. During the month, Australian employers fired 18.6K workers, while they were anticipated to have hired 17.5K fresh job-seekers.

A surprising increase in the Australian jobless rate has raised concerns about whether the RBA will continue its monetary tightening cycle in the June policy meeting.

Analysts at Westpac have stated that their call for the RBA to pause in its June policy meeting is now high-conviction, but expect the tightening cycle to remain broadly continued amid high inflation concerns.

In addition to the weakness in the Australian Dollar, a broadly firm US Dollar is also hurting the Aussie pair. As of writing, the US Dollar Index (DXY), which gauges the Greenback’s value against six major currencies, trades 0.1% higher to near 99.30.

Going forward, the major trigger for the pair and global markets will be statements from Washington and Tehran regarding the peace deal. On Thursday, Iran said that the final draft of the peace deal with the United States (US) has been finalized, and a deal could be announced in few hours. However, no deal has been announced yet.

Economic Indicator

Unemployment Rate s.a.

The Unemployment Rate, released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, is the number of unemployed workers divided by the total civilian labor force, expressed as a percentage. If the rate increases, it indicates a lack of expansion within the Australian labor market and a weakness within the Australian economy. A decrease in the figure is seen as bullish for the Australian Dollar (AUD), while an increase is seen as bearish.

Why it matters to traders?

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) publishes an overview of trends in the Australian labour market, with unemployment rate a closely watched indicator. It is released about 15 days after the month end and throws light on the overall economic conditions, as it is highly correlated to consumer spending and inflation. Despite the lagging nature of the indicator, it affects the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) interest rate decisions, in turn, moving the Australian dollar. Upbeat figure tends to be AUD positive.

Author

Sagar Dua

FXStreet

Sagar Dua is associated with the financial markets from his college days. Along with pursuing post-graduation in Commerce in 2014, he started his markets training with chart analysis.

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