Talking Points:
- Australian Dollar little changed versus the US Dollar
- Unemployment rate 6.0 percent in June versus 6.1 percent expected
- Australia gained 7,300 jobs in June versus zero expected
The Australian Dollar was little changed versus its US counterpart after June’s employment data crossed the wires. Economists were not expecting the country to add or lose jobs in the month of May; actual figures topped estimates at 7.3K jobs added. Most of the jobs gained came from the full-time figures (+24.5K). Australia lost 17.2K part-time jobs in June. In addition, the unemployment rate increased to 6.0 percent from 5.9 percent in May. The participation rate increased slightly to 64.8 percent from 64.7 percent in May.
On Tuesday the Reserve Bank of Australia maintained a neutral monetary policy stance that is dependent on incoming economic data. While June’s figures were overall positive, the data did not seem to encourage speculation on a near term RBA rate hike. Indeed, Australian front-end government bond yields were little changed in the aftermath of today’s release, suggesting the lack of movement in the Aussie was a result of no clear-cut bias for RBA monetary policy outlook. Perhaps if the country significantly added more jobs in June or vice versa, we could have witnessed a more defined movement in the Aussie.
