The US Non-Farm Payroll data Friday came in close to the 200K median expectation for March, hitting a figure of 192K. This has pushed the job count higher than previous high of 2008 and also saw the participation rate move from recent low levels to 63.2 percent of working-age people actively looking for work.
Salary earnings were up 2.1 percent for the year, down slightly on February’s figure but still outperforming inflation, the latest inflation reading was 1.1 percent for the year. All-in-all this is likely a sign that the Fed will continue to monitor and slowly scale back its quantitative easing efforts without having to do anything too drastic.
‘Risk-markets’ were initially supported by the figures. Equity indexes hit all-time-highs before selling off and gold also moved higher, which often supports the A-dollar. The Australian dollar was definitely one of the better performing currencies jumping up as a market-optimism-mover. The Aussie was actually one of the few majors to move higher against the USD which evidently saw it nicely supported against the Euro, the Pound and maintaining its recent run against the Kiwi.
A key test will be the recent highs for the AUDUSD as these have held and are yet to be broken in price action. A break could possibly see movement back to the mid 90’s. The Aussie not moving lower against better US figures and a firmer USD, like other majors, is definitely a positive for the Aussie.