Greenback Pauses Recent Rally, Commodity Currencies Supported

The greenback has come off session highs seen at the tail-end of the US session, the yen is the best performer so far. Commodity currencies supported by gains in oil, the brent benchmark has risen over to $65/bbl to hit the highest level in over a year.

• AUD caught a bid heading into labour market data, and post data challenged yesterday's highs before pulling back slightly. AUD/USD last up 9 pips at 0.7760. The labour market added 29,100 jobs, just marginally below consensus, full time jobs rose while part time jobs fell, the unemployment slipped 0.1ppt to 6.4% but the participation rate also fell.
• NZD higher in sympathy with AUD, it was reported earlier that the New Zealand cabinet has agreed to make the wearing of face coverings on public transport mandatory for all New Zealanders, there were no new cases of coronavirus reported in the last 24 hours.
• JPY is one of the best performers, USD/JPY down 11 pips at 105.76 after twice rejecting 106.20 level yesterday. The greenback has paused its recent reflation trade rally as yields come off their best levels, which has helped JPY regain some poise.
• Chinese markets returned today, it is expected local assets will play catch up having being closed for five days. The PBOC fixed USD/CNY at 6.4536 against sell side estimates of 6.4529, the central bank conducted a net drain of CNY 260bn today. As a reference USD/CNH is down 15 pips at 6.4337.