AUD/USD Rises on Mixed Economic Data, Eyes US and China GDP Next

TALKING POINTS – AUD/USD, EMPLOYMENT DATA, US AND CHINA GDP, EQUITIES

• AUD/USD slightly rallied following the release of mixed employment data
• Dominantdowntrend remains as December 2016 support may turn into resistance
• Risk trends, Chinese and US Gross Domestic Product figures in focus next

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The Australian Dollar cautiously gained against its US namesake after local labor market data crossed the wires early into Thursday’s Asia Pacific trading session. Although September’s unemployment rate decreased to 5.0% from both economists’ forecasts and the prior 5.3%, the labor force participation rate declined to 65.4% from the 65.7% previous and estimated. In addition, the Australian economy added 5.6k jobs last month, a sharp drop from the forecasted 15.0k and prior 44.0k. A gauge of business confidence also declined in the third quarter.

AUD/USD Chart (5-minute)

Looking past the slight uptick, AUD/USD has been engaged in a dominant downtrend for the majority of this year due to shifting interest rate differentials and global risk aversion. Despite a recent rally, the currency pair recently set the 2018-low of 0.7085 last month, breaking through December 2016 support levels in the 0.719-0.719 range. These may turn into resistance for the future if the descending trend line continues to hold. On the other hand, a bullish reversal may be indicated by invalidation of this trend.

AUD/USD Chart (Daily)

Looking ahead, the Australian Dollar may carve new 2018 lows as the sentiment-linked unit will closely eye risk trends. Broad-based market aversion and declines in global equities could point to further losses for the Aussie. In addition, AUD/USD will also be closely eyeing the releases of 3Q Chinese GDP this Friday and annualized US growth figures for the third quarter next week.

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--- Written by Megha Torpunuri, DailyFX Research Team