The aussie took a bad hit in today's Asian session as Australia posted worse-than-expected jobs data. The biggest surprise was its employment change in January. It was expected to increase by 15,000, but instead lost 3,700. Fulltime employment during the period also dropped by 7,100, while part-time employment grew by 3,400. Then there's the unemployment rate, which rose to 6.0% from the previous 5.8%. This is the highest unemployment rate the country has seen so far since 2003.
This is in line with the expectations of the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) wherein unemployment will rise as the country moves away from its weakening resources sector. On the other hand, they revised their inflation forecast to 2.25 to 3.25, which are higher than earlier projections.
The first to take the hit of Australia's jobs data are the AUD/USD pair, which plummeted below the 0.9000 area earlier today. It opened today's Asian session at 0.9022, but quickly slid to 0.8939 after the release of the data. It is currently trading at 0.8941, with initial resistance seen at 0.9049, followed by 0.9072. Meanwhile, initial support is at 0.8986, followed by 0.8964.
The AUD/JPY pair also fell today after enjoying the past two days at the 92.00 zone. This erased much of the gains the pair had earlier this week. It is currently trading at 91.48, with initial resistance seen at 92.77, followed by 93.00. Meanwhile, initial support is at 92.05, followed by 91.82.
It was an opposite trend for the EUR/AUD pair as it managed to recover its losses of the past several days when it broke past the 1.5200 area in today's Asian session. It is currently trading at 1.5224, with initial resistance seen at 1.5097, followed by 1.5135. Meanwhile, initial support is at 1.4942, followed by 1.4905.
Create a FREE account