AUD/USD renews multi-week highs above 0.7760 ahead of US data

• AUD/USD continues to build on Wednesday’s strong gains.
• US Dollar Index stays flat below 91.70 on Thursday.
• Unemployment Rate in Australia declined to 5.6% in March.

The AUD/USD pair gained nearly 100 pips on Wednesday and preserves its firm footing on Thursday. As of writing, the pair, which touched its highest level in nearly four weeks at 0.7762 earlier in the session, was up 0.36% at 0.7748.

Strong Australian jobs report supports AUD

During the Asian trading hours, the data published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics revealed that the Unemployment Rate in March declined to 5.6% from 5.8% in February. More importantly, the Employment Change arrived at +70,700, beating the market expectation of 35,000 by a wide margin. Although the initial market reaction was relatively muted, the AUD seems to be capitalizing on the upbeat labour market report.

On the other hand, following a three-day-long slump, the US Dollar Index is moving sideways below 91.70, allowing the AUD’s market valuation to continue to drive AUD/USD’s movements.

Later in the day, Retail Sales, Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization  data for March and  weekly Initial Jobless Claims figures will be featured in the US economic docket.  

In the meantime, the risk-positive market environment is providing an additional boost to the AUD on Thursday. At the moment, the S&P 500 Futures are up 0.45% on the day, suggesting that risk flows are likely to continue to dominate the financial markets in the second half of the day.

Technical levels to watch for