Australian jobs report for October that was released during the Asia-Pacific session today turned out to be a positive surprise. Employment increased by 55k, marking the third consecutive month a positive employment gains. Market expected an increase of 21.4k. This was the longest such streak since the August-November 2022 period. Unemployment rate ticked higher from 3.6 to 3.7%, in-line with economists' expectations. Nevertheless, report failed to boost AUD, with the Australian dollar being the worst performing G10 currency today.
Details of the report may help explain lackluster performance of AUD today. Namely, the employment gain in October was driven by a 37.9k jump in part-time employment. Part-time employment is usually seen as more volatile and less desirable than full-time employment. On top of that, it should be said that October is the month that has usually seen full-time employment as the driver of overall employment increase in Australia. While the report was quite solid overall, it was not strong enough to justify another RBA rate hike, and it is pushing AUD lower today.
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Open real account TRY DEMO Download mobile app Download mobile appTaking a look at EURAUD chart at H4 interval, we can see that the pair bounced off the 1.6650 support and rallied towards 1.6750 zone as AUD weakened following jobs data release. However, bulls failed to break above the 1.6750 resistance zone and the pair began to trim gains. Declines were halted at the 50-period moving average (green line) and an attempt to launch a recovery move can be seen on the chart. The two aforementioned zones - 1.6650 support and 1.6750 resistance - are key near-term levels to watch. The pair may remain volatile throughout the day as there are a number of speeches from ECB members scheduled.
Source: xStation5