Australian Dollar Falls As Australia Jobs Unexpectedly Drop

(RTTNews) - The Australian dollar weakened against other major currencies in the Asian session on Thursday, as the Australian economy jobs lost in December.

Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed that the Australian economy lost 65,100 jobs in December. That was way off from forecasts for an increase of 17,600 jobs following the addition of 61,500 jobs in November.

Specifically, full-time jobs were down 106,600 after gaining 57,000 in the previous month.

The jobless rate managed to hold steady at 3.9 percent, while the participation rate fell to 66.8 percent from 67.2 percent a month earlier.

Wednesday, the Australian dollar fell against the euro, the U.S. dollar, the New Zealand dollar and the Canadian dollar. Meanwhile, the aussie rose slightly against the yen.

In the Asian trading today, the Australian dollar fell to nearly a 2-month low of 1.6675 against the euro, from yesterday's closing value of 1.6600. The aussie may test support near the 1.68 region.

Against the U.S. dollar and the yen, the aussie slipped to 0.6526 and 96.72 from Wednesday's closing quotes of 0.6550 and 97.04, respectively. If the aussie extends its downtrend, it is likely to find support around 0.64 against the greenback and 95.00 against the yen.

Against the Canada and the New Zealand dollars, the aussie slipped to more than a 2-month low of 0.8815 and a 3-day low of 1.0692 from yesterday's closing quotes of 0.8846 and 1.0703, respectively. On the downside, 0.87 against the loonie and 1.05 against the kiwi are seen as the next support levels for the aussie.

Looking ahead, Eurozone current account data and construction output, both for November, are due to be released in the European session.

At 7:30 am ET, European Central Bank will publish monetary policy meeting accounts.

In the New York session, U.S. building permits for December, weekly jobless claims data, housing starts for December, U.S. Philadelphia Fed manufacturing index for January and U.S. EIA crude oil data are slated for release.

At 10:15 am ET, ECB board member Christine Lagarde will participate in Stakeholder Dialogue "Town Hall: How to Trust Economics" during World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

At 11:30 am ET, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta President Raphael Bostic will give brief remarks on the economic outlook before the Metro Atlanta Chamber board of directors meeting, in Atlanta, U.S.

At 12:05 pm ET, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta President Raphael Bostic will deliver a speech on the 2024 economic outlook before the Atlanta Business Chronicle 2024 Economic Outlook lunch, in Atlanta, U.S.