- AUD/USD dropped to its lowest level since early April on Thursday.
- US Dollar Index stays within a touching distance of 92.00.
- Market participants largely ignored uninspiring data releases from US.
The AUD/USD pair extended its slide after posting heavy losses on Wednesday and dropped to its lowest level since April 1 at 0.7539 on Thursday before going into a consolidation phase. As of writing, the pair was trading at 0.7557, losing 0.7% on a daily basis.
DXY climbs to multi-month highs
The unabated USD strength remained the main market theme following the hawkish shift seen in the FOMC’s updated Summary of Projection, the so-called dot plot. The publication revealed that the number of policymakers who see a lift-off in the fed funds rate from zero in 2023 rose to 13 from seven in March.
Following Wednesday’s 1% jump, the US Dollar Index (DXY) preserved its bullish momentum and advanced to its strongest level in more than two months at 92.00 during the American trading hours on Thursday. As of writing, the DXY was up 0.5% on the day at 91.84.
Meanwhile, the data from the US revealed that the Initial Jobless Claims rose to 412,000 from 375,000 and the Philadelphia Fed’s Manufacturing Index edged lower to 30.7 in June from 31.5 in May. Nevertheless, these figures had little to no impact on the greenback’s performance against its rivals.
On the other hand, the Australian Bureau of Statistics announced earlier in the day that the Employment Change in Australia jumped to +115,200 in May, surpassing the market expectation of +30,00 by a wide margin. However, AUD/USD’s positive reaction to this data remained short-lived with investors staying focused on the USD’s valuation.
Technical levels to watch for
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