The employment report released from Australia during the Asian trading session was mixed, but that did not prevent the Australian dollar from beating most of its rivals, though not the very strong US dollar.
Australia’s employment grew by 39,100 in November from October, much more than analysts had predicted (17,600). The October increase got a big positive revision from 9,800 to 15,200. At the same time, the unemployment rate grew unexpectedly from 5.6% to 5.7%.
In other news, the Melbourne Institute inflation expectations rose from 3.2% in November to 3.4% in December.
Overall, macroeconomic data looked rather solid, pushing the Aussie higher against its peers. The greenback was an exception, getting strong support from the monetary policy announcement and economic projections of the Federal Reserve.
AUD/USD slipped from 0.7405 to the session low of 0.7383 (the lowest since December 1) before bouncing to 0.7403 as of 00:49 GMT today. EUR/AUD dropped from 1.4223 to 1.4160, reaching the daily low of 1.4120. AUD/JPY rallied from 86.65 to 87.11, trading near the highest level since January 4.
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