AUD/USD sticks to Aussie jobs data-led weakness to 2-week lows, just below 0.6800 handle
- A hawkish rate cut by the Fed triggered some corrective slide on Wednesday.
- The downfall accelerated further following the release of the Aussie jobs report.
The AUD/USD pair maintained its heavily offered tone through the early European session on Thursday and is currently placed near the lower end of its daily trading range, or over two-week lows.
After repeatedly failing ahead of the 0.6900 handle, the pair on came under some fresh selling pressure on Wednesday after the latest FOMC policy statement suggested that the US central bank is already done with its mid-cycle adjustments.
The Fed did deliver a 25 bps rate cut but the so-called dot-plot showed that the median projections of federal funds rate is expected to remain at present levels through the end of 2020 and provided a goodish intraday lift to the US Dollar.
Disappointing Aussie jobs data adds to the post-FOMC downfall
The downfall accelerated further on Thursday following the release of rather unimpressive Aussie jobs data, which showed that the unemployment rate ticked higher to 5.3% in August as compared to the previous month's reading of 5.2%.
Meanwhile, the headline data showed that the number of employed people increased by 34.7K in August but the fact that full-time employment dropped to -15.5K disappointing investors and exerted some additional pressure on the major.
The pair dropped to its lowest level since September 4, albeit now seems to have found some support near the 0.6780-75 horizontal resistance breakpoint amid the lack of any follow-through buying interest around the greenback.
Moving ahead, Thursday's US economic docket - featuring the release of initial weekly jobless claims and Philly Fed Manufacturing Index - will now be looked upon for some short-term trading opportunities.
Technical levels to watch