Australia enjoyed a growth of 37.4K jobs in December, far better than a modest gain of 5.3K expected. This came on top of an upwards revision to November’s figures, which now stand at 45K. Also the unemployment rate is going in the right direction: a drop to 6.1% instead of 6.3% expected.
The positive figures, despite being doubted by some, sent AUD/USD to resistance at around 0.8215.
The gains seen in the past two months are the strongest in over 8 years. Full time employment is up 41.6K and part time is down 4.1K. The participation rate is up to 64.8% from 64.7% beforehand.
Only 24 hours beforehand, AUD/USD fell below 0.81 together with the price of copper. It now looks much better.
Banks have rushed to update forecasts, now cutting the chances of rate cuts from the RBA. Just a month or two ago there were estimations for rate cuts beginning already in February.
The very round level of 0.80 proved to be the “line in the sand” for the Aussie.
More: 6 reasons why AUD/USD long is the top trade for 2015 – Nordea
Support is now seen at 0.8150. Below 0.81, the low level is 0.8066, which was the 2010 low, followed by the 2015 low of 0.8032.
Here is the chart:
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