AUD/USD: Australia’s unemployment rate held steady at 5.7% in April, but most of the job added are part-timers

AUDUSD

AUDUSD Movement

For the 24 hours to 23:00 GMT, the AUD weakened 1.24% against the USD to close at 0.7230.

LME Copper prices declined 0.72% or $33.5/MT to $4600.5/MT. Aluminium prices declined 0.16% or $2.5/MT to $1529.5/MT.

In the Asian session, at GMT0300, the pair is trading at 0.7212, with the AUD trading 0.25% lower from yesterday’s close.

Early this morning, data showed that, Australia’s unemployment rate unexpectedly held steady at a two-and-a-half-year low level of 5.7% in April, compared to market expectations of an advance to 5.8% On the other hand, the number of people employed rose less-than-expected by 10.8K in April, lower than market expectations of an advance of 12.0K. The number of people employed had recorded a revised increase of 25.7K in the prior month. However, most of the jobs added were in part-time roles increasing by 20.2K positions, signalling weakness in Australia’s labour market. Meanwhile, full-time jobs contracted by 9.3K positions.

Elsewhere, in China, Australia’s largest trading partner, the MNI business sentiment index eased to a level of 50.0 in May, from a reading of 50.5 in the previous month.

The pair is expected to find support at 0.7179, and a fall through could take it to the next support level of 0.7146. The pair is expected to find its first resistance at 0.7271, and a rise through could take it to the next resistance level of 0.7330.

The currency pair is trading below its 20 Hr and 50 Hr moving averages.

This entry was posted in AUD/USD. Bookmark the permalink.

Comments are closed.