The Australian dollar fell today following the release of employment data. While the report had both positive and negative parts, markets preferred to focus on the negative ones. Additionally, the monetary policy outlook worsened.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics reported that the number of employed people rose by 28,400 in April, which exceeded the consensus forecast of a 15,200 increase. But the growth was due to part-time jobs, while the number of full-time jobs decreased. The participation rate increased from 65.7% to 65.8%. The unemployment rate edged up from 5.1% to 5.2%. That was the main disappointment for market participants as they were expecting a decrease to 5.0%.
The rising unemployment rate increased chances for an interest rate hike from the Reserve Bank of Australia next month. Markets now price in more that 50% chance of such an event.
AUD/USD declined from 0.6928 to 0.6906 as of 14:54 GMT today. EUR/AUD was up from 1.6165 to 1.6251 intraday before pulling back to 1.6185 later. AUD/JPY was flat at 75.90 after falling to the daily low of 75.40 earlier.
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