13 Feb 2014
Asia Recap: Australia unemployment at 10-yr high, Aussie sold heavily
FXStreet (Bali) - In stark contrast to Wednesday's Asian session, when the Australian Dollar spiked higher on shockingly high China trade numbers, today's performance has vanished all weekly gains after a bounceless decline following a dismal jobs report Down Under.
As Charles St-Arnaud, Economist at Nomura, notes: "The Australian economy lost 3.6k jobs vs +15.0k exp in January after losing 23.0k in December (revised down from -22.6k). As a result, the unemployment rate increased to 6.0% from 5.8%, its highest level since July 2003, while the participation rate remained unchanged at 64.6%. Most of the job losses were again for full-time jobs (-7.1k)."
The Japanese Yen strengthened during Asian hours, with the selling of the Nikkei 225 post lunch (currently down 1.6%) to blame for the advance. The USD/JPY rate has been limited by 102.70 on the upside, while the round number 102.00/10 (kijun H4 too) has provided support thus far.
The New Zealand Dollar also fell in sympathy with a lower Aussie, yet losses were more contained partly due to strong inflows into AUD/NZD. The Sterling continued to trade well bid in Asia, making new 2-week high above the 1.66 level. The Euro was also supportive vs the USD, recovering 1.36. The Canadian Dollar and the Swiss Franc traded quietly, as usual in Asia.
Main headlines in Asia
Australia January Consumer Inflation Expectation steadies at 2.3%
Australia prints worst unemployment rate since 2003
Australia's Hockey: Jobs data disappointing
AUD/USD: Sellers back in mass, bounceless fall to 0.8935...
Australian jobs unlikely to change RBA's neutral stance - Nomura
As Charles St-Arnaud, Economist at Nomura, notes: "The Australian economy lost 3.6k jobs vs +15.0k exp in January after losing 23.0k in December (revised down from -22.6k). As a result, the unemployment rate increased to 6.0% from 5.8%, its highest level since July 2003, while the participation rate remained unchanged at 64.6%. Most of the job losses were again for full-time jobs (-7.1k)."
The Japanese Yen strengthened during Asian hours, with the selling of the Nikkei 225 post lunch (currently down 1.6%) to blame for the advance. The USD/JPY rate has been limited by 102.70 on the upside, while the round number 102.00/10 (kijun H4 too) has provided support thus far.
The New Zealand Dollar also fell in sympathy with a lower Aussie, yet losses were more contained partly due to strong inflows into AUD/NZD. The Sterling continued to trade well bid in Asia, making new 2-week high above the 1.66 level. The Euro was also supportive vs the USD, recovering 1.36. The Canadian Dollar and the Swiss Franc traded quietly, as usual in Asia.
Main headlines in Asia
Australia January Consumer Inflation Expectation steadies at 2.3%
Australia prints worst unemployment rate since 2003
Australia's Hockey: Jobs data disappointing
AUD/USD: Sellers back in mass, bounceless fall to 0.8935...
Australian jobs unlikely to change RBA's neutral stance - Nomura