The Australian dollar dropped today, falling more than 1 percent against its major peers and erasing its previous gains, as traders continued to anticipate an interest rate hike from the Federal Reserve. Yesterday, the currency jumped due to a positive employment report.
Australian employment expanded by 71,400 jobs in November instead of falling by 10,000 as was predicted by analysts. Furthermore, the unemployment rate ticked down by 0.1 percentage point to 5.8 percent while experts had predicted an increase to 6.0 percent. On top of that, better-than-expected inflation data from China added to the positive fundamentals, supporting the Aussie.
Yet all the positive indicators were unable to help the Australian currency during the Friday’s trading session. Specialists attributed the poor performance to the expectations of monetary tightening from the Fed. Also, the drop of commodities could have played its part in the Aussie’s decline.
AUD/USD dropped from 0.7279 to 0.7205 as of 14:37 GMT today. EUR/AUD advanced from 1.5021 to 1.5257. AUD/JPY tumbled from 88.47 to 87.20, reaching the lowest level since November 16.
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