AUD/JPY struggles to cheer an above-forecast Aussie jobs report

• AUD/JPY finds no takers despite a surprise drop in the Aussie jobless rate. 
• Employment growth bettered estimates, largely due to big gains in part-time employment. 
• Dovish RBA expectations and risk-off tone in financial markets are likely capping the upside.

Australia’s jobs report for February bettered estimates by a big margin and so far has failed to yield a notable rally in the AUD/JPY pair. 

The jobless rate ticked lower to 5.1% from 5.3% and the economy added 26.7K jobs compared to estimates of 10K additions and up from the preceding month’s job gains of 13.5K. 

AUD/JPY jumped from 62.48 to 62.60 immediately after the release of the jobs data at 00:30 GMT only to fall back to 62.55 at press time. 

Big gains have remained elusive possibly because the Fulltime Employment growth slowed to 6.7K in February from January’s 46.2K. Meanwhile, Part-Time Employment rose by 20K, having dipped by 32.7K in January. 

Additionally, the dovish Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) expectations could be keeping the AUD bulls at the bay. The central bank is expected to hit the zero lower bound on Wednesday and announce a bond purchase program. 

Meanwhile, the coronavirus-led sell-off in equities is showing no signs of slowing down and is likely keeping the anti-risk yen better bid. The S&P 500 index fell by over 5% on Wednesday despite the US fiscal stimulus talk. 

The pair could continue to trade under pressure ahead of the RBA rate decision scheduled at 00:30 GMT.

Technical levels