The Australian dollar did not move far today as markets were in a consolidation mode after optimism caused by the coronavirus vaccine news started to wane. Even the stellar jobs report failed to boost the Australian currency.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics reported that employment surged by 178,800 in October after falling by 45,500 in September. That was a total surprise to experts, who had predicted a drop of 26,700. Both full-time and part-time employment contributed to the increase, by 97,000 and 81,800 respectively. The unemployment rate inched up from 6.9% to 7.0% but was below the median forecast of 7.1%. The participation rate increased from 64.9% to 65.8%.
However amazing the employment data was, it was unable to provide a boost to the Australian currency. Market analysts had various theories for why that was the case. Some speculated that the reports about the surging number of coronavirus cases across the world overshadowed the news about the vaccine, which will not be ready for some time anyway. Others believed that short-covering sent the US dollar higher, putting pressure on other currencies. Whatever the case, the Aussie was trading below the opening level against its most-traded rivals, though the losses were extremely small.
AUD/USD fell from 0.7305 to 0.7291 as of 7:58 GMT today. EUR/AUD edged up from 1.6220 to 1.6240, reaching the high of 1.6265 intraday. AUD/JPY was down from 75.84 to 75.73, and its daily low was at 75.60.
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