AUD/USD: Got me under pressure – Westpac

By FXStreet Research Team at Westpac, suggests that today’s April labour force data suggested that Australian wages growth will remain muted until further notice.

Key Quotes

“The 11k rise in total jobs was very close to expectations and the 5.7% unemployment rate a touch below consensus. But attention quickly turned to soft points in the details of the report. As Justin Smirk of our Economics team notes, part-time employment has grown 160.9k (4.5%yr) while full-time employment has growth 83.8k (1.0%yr). Given that full-time employment represents 69% of total employment, the fact that in in the last year we have added twice as many part-time employees as full-time employees really highlights the signify cant shift the economy is experiencing, partly due to the ongoing fall in mining investment.

Justin also noted the softer than expected participation rate and a slightly worrying -1.1% m/m decline in total hours worked in April, after -1.1% in March. This helped nudge AUD/USD under 0.7200 for the first time since 2 March, when Australia’s strong Q4 GDP data sparked a rally that exceeded 6 cents by late April.

The RBA minutes on Tue helped AUD/USD stem its losses and pricing for a June or July rate cut should remain …read more

Source:: FX Street