The Australian dollar dropped following the release of a disappointing employment report. While the currency attempted to bounce afterwards, it failed and continued to move down, erasing the intraday gains.
Australian employment grew by 4,900 jobs in March, far less than analysts had predicted 20,300. Furthermore, only part-time employment contributed to the increase as full-time employment actually dropped. And on top of that, the February reading got a massive negative revision from a solid growth by 17,500 to a substantial decline by 6,300. That was the first drop of employment since September 2016. The unemployment rate remained unchanged from February’s revised level of 5.5% (before the revision it was slightly higher at 5.6%).
The National Australia Bank business confidence remained unchanged at +7 in the first quarter of 2018. The business conditions improved slightly from +15 to +17.
AUD/USD dropped from 0.7783 to 0.7721 as of 18:39 GMT today following the rally to 0.7813 intraday. EUR/AUD declined from 1.5892 to 1.5848 before bouncing to 1.5989. AUD/JPY fell from 83.44 to 82.90, retreating after the rally to the daily high of 83.94.
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