Australia Employment Change and Unemployment Rate both showed positive numbers for February.
While the prospects for peace in Ukraine and Russia are improving, risk appetite is still positive. However, Kyiv’s refusal to be neutral was a speed-breaker.
The recovery in China’s constrained conditions is pushing for economic measures that also favor Aussie buyers.
The strong beat of Thursday’s Asian session’s Aussie jobs report for February saw the AUD/USD rise to 0.7305, an intraday high. The market’s mildly positive mood, which is mainly due to headlines from China and Ukraine, supports the risk-barometer pair.
Australia’s headline unemployment rate fell to 4.0%, lower than the 4.1% expected, and 4.2% before. However, the Employment Change rose above 37K market forecasts and 12.9K prior readings to 77.4K.
The AUD/USD rise is supported by the positive Aussie jobs report and cautious optimism from the market. Also, recent positive signals from China’s latest customer are supporting the upward trend.
Talks of a diplomatic compromis between Russia and Ukraine triggered the risk-on mood on Wednesday before news suggesting that there was a deadlock over the proposal for neutrality of Kyiv. Market sentiment and the threat of a conflict between the peace talks and the Russian invasion of Ukraine was increased by the International Court of Justice’s order that Russia suspend its aggression. Recent statements by Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian President, hoped that allies would help him to control air traffic for Russian military aircrafts.
It is worth noting that China’s COVID-19 woes are receding due to Wednesday’s improvement in daily infections. China Vice Premier Liu He pushed for measures to boost China’s economy in the first quarter of the year (Q1) to maintain the risk appetite.
The US Federal Reserve’s (Fed), 0.25% rate increase and seven additional rate increases during 2022 are alternatives that could challenge the market sentiment as well as the AUD/USD prices.
Wall Street had another good day against this backdrop. The US 10-year Treasury yields reaffirmed their highest levels in 2 years, before falling to 2.172%. The S&P 500 Futures posted 0.20% intraday gains and flashed 4,365 by press time.
New covid updates from China are expected to provide immediate direction for the Aussie pair, while second-tier data will be of interest to pair traders in the US. For the short-term trend forecast, headlines from Ukraine will be crucial.
Analyse technique
The AUD/USD pair’s immediate upside is around 0.7300-05. A break of this will propel it towards the 0.7370 level.
