AUD/USD is growing moderately, developing the upward momentum of the previous session, during which the pair successfully pushed off from local lows on November 14, 2023 and is currently testing the 0.6445 mark for an upward breakout. Meanwhile, market participants are analyzing the March report on the Australian labor market published on Thursday.
The report notes a decrease in the employment rate by 6.6 thousand jobs after a significant increase of 117.6 thousand in the previous month, which is slightly lower than analysts' expectations of 7.2 thousand. Full-time employment increased by 27.9 thousand, while partial employment decreased by 34.5 thousand. The unemployment rate rose from 3.7% to 3.8%, with expectations of 3.9%, and the share of the labor force in the total population decreased from 66.7% to 66.6%.
At the same time, the US dollar received good support from Jerome Powell's comments. Although the exact timing of the launch of the program to reduce the cost of borrowing was not specified, the head of the Fed stressed that the national economy will need some time to reach the 2.0% inflation target. This led to a revision of investors' forecasts for the date of the first interest rate adjustment in the current year. An easing of monetary policy in September seems to be the most likely scenario, but a change in course at the end of 2024 is also possible. It is expected that there will be no more than two interest rate cuts this year.
On the daily chart, the Bollinger band indicator shows a moderate decrease while. The MACD is trying to move to growth, while at the same time maintaining a sell signal. Stochastic, having retreated from the lows, began to turn up and is trying to break through the 20% level and get out of the oversold area.
We consider purchases after a confident breakdown of the 0.6456 level up with a target of 0.6524. We will set the stop loss at 0.6420.
A rebound from the resistance of 0.6456, followed by a breakdown of the 0.6420 mark down, will be a signal to form short positions with a target of 0.6356. We will place the stop loss at 0.6456.