NFP To Dominate Proceedings

 | Apr 05, 2019 09:16

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The Australian dollar fell by a margin, closed at 0.7112(-4 pips) against the greenback. With little economic data to focus on, the AUD/USD traded between .7098 and .7127, consolidating upon the strong gains achieved on Wednesday.

However, Reports that US President Donald Trump and China’s Vice President Liu He will meet late on Thursday was one factor that helped to support the Aussie during the session. According to strategists at ANZ Bank:

Beijing has acknowledged the issues the US has regarding intellectual property theft, forced technology transfer and cyber hacking. This acknowledgement was welcomed by the markets...Also supportive was Trump’s assertion that ‘China will be buying a lot of product from the US

While trade optimism continued to underpin the Aussie, along with recent gains in commodity prices, especially iron ore, the lack of movement during the session was likely impacted by caution ahead of the release of US non-farm payrolls on Friday.

Although the Aussie moved little against the greenback, it recorded larger gains against the British pound and New Zealand dollar during the session.

Turning to the day ahead, the US payrolls report for March will dominate proceedings in the second half of the session. Markets are looking for payrolls to lift by 180,000, accelerating from the 20,000 increase reported in February. The unemployment rate is expected to remain steady at 3.8% with average hourly earning tipped to rise by 0.3%, leaving the annual increase unchanged at 3.4%.

h3 AUDUSD 4 Hour Chart