AUD/USD steadies above 0.7600 after advancing to highest level since June 2018

• AUD/USD is posting impressive daily gains on Thursday.
• Strong data from Australia helped AUD outperform its rivals.
• USD selloff remains intact following FOMC’s December meeting.

The broad-based selling pressure surrounding the greenback and upbeat macroeconomic data releases from Australia allowed the AUD/USD pair to gather bullish momentum on Thursday. After touching its highest level since June 2018 at 0.7640, the pair seems to have gone into a consolidation phase and was last seen gaining 0.7% on the day at 0.6728.

Australian jobs report fuel AUD’s rally

The data published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed on Thursday that the Unemployment Rate fell to 6.8% in November and came in better than analysts’ estimate of 7%. Moreover, the Employment Change arrives at 90,000 and surpassed the market expectation of 50,000 by a wide margin. Finally, the Housing Industry Association reported that New Home Sales in Australia surged by 15.2% in October following September’s decline of 1.3%.

On the other hand, the US Federal Reserve left its monetary policy setting unchanged after the December meeting as expected on Wednesday. During the press conference, FOMC Chairman reaffirmed that they remain open to adjusting asset purchases and triggered a USD selloff ahead of the weekend.

As of writing, the US Dollar Index was down 0.62% on the day at 89.88. Later in the session, the US Department of Labor will release its weekly Initial Jobless Claims report. Additionally, Housing Starts, Building Permits and the Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Survey will be featured in the US economic docket.

There won’t be any macroeconomic data releases from Australia on Friday and the USD’s market valuation is likely to remain the primary driver of AUD/USD’s movements.

Technical levels to watch for