Bid From Strong Jobs Data Not Sustained In AUD/USD

Employment data from Australia was stronger than expected, 90k jobs were added in November against expectations of a gain of 50k, the unemployment rate dropped to 6.8%, while the participation rate also rose to 66.1% from 65.8%.

• The monthly gain, while above forecasts, fell well below the 180.4k jobs added in October.
• Bjorn Jarvis, head of labour statistics at the ABS, pointed out that employment is still not back to pre-pandemic levels. "Early in the COVID period we saw large flows of people out of the labour force - 666,000 people between March and May – and the participation rate fell 3.3 percentage points over the two months. While the participation rate has recovered, there are still 138,000 fewer employed people than in March and 226,000 more unemployed people."
• AUD/USD moved higher after the release, making fresh cycle highs of 0.7587 and rising above 0.7583, the Jun 14, 2018 high. However, lingering US dollar strength after the FOMC capped gains and has seen the pair pull back to 0.7578.
• The Federal government's Mid‑Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook is also due in the session.
• From a technical perspective AUDUSD is holding onto recent gains and remains bullish. The Dec 2 break of 0.7414, Sep 1 high and former key resistance confirmed a resumption of the uptrend that began Mar 19. Moving average studies are also in a bull mode highlighting current sentiment. The focus is on 0.7583, the Jun 14, 2018 high and 0.7638, a Fibonacci retracement. Key short-term support is at 0.7373, Dec 7 low. Initial support lies at 0.7507 and 0.7427.