- AUD/USD is pushing higher after closing lower for two straight days.
- Unemployment Rate in Australia declined to 6.4% in January.
- US Dollar Index retreats below 90.70 ahead of mid-tier data.
The AUD/USD pair closed the previous two days in the negative territory and reversed its course on Thursday. As of writing, the pair was up 0.41% on a daily basis at 0.7781.
AUD capitalizes on strong labour market report
Earlier in the day, the data published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed that the Unemployment Rate declined to 6.4% in January from 6.6% in December and came in better than the market expectation of 6.5%. Further details of the publication revealed that the Fulltime Employment in that period increased by 59,000, better than 35,700 registered in December. These upbeat figures helped the AUD gather strength during the Asian session.
On the other hand, the US Dollar Index, which climbed above 91.00 on the back of strong Retail Sales data from the US on Wednesday, is staging a correction on Thursday and allowing AUD/USD to preserve its bullish momentum.
Ahead of the US Department of Labor’s weekly Initial Jobless Claims report and January New Home Sales data, the DXY is down 0.3% on the day at 90.68.
In the meantime, the S&P 500 Futures are down 0.4% on the day. If Wall Street’s main indexes suffer heavy losses after the opening bell, the USD could find demand as a safe-haven and limit AUD/USD’s upside.
On Friday, Commonwealth Bank Services PMI and Manufacturing PMI data will be featured in the Australian economic docket.
Technical levels to watch for
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