AUD/USD received support after Australian employment data and Bernanke’s statement

Australian dollar advanced further against its US peer on Thursday, following the release of positive data, regarding Australian employment, while at the same time the greenback plunged widely after comments made by FED Chairman Ben Bernanke yesterday.

AUD/USD reached a session high at 0.9304 at 5:00 GMT, the highest point since June 27th, after which consolidation followed at 0.9274. At 7:41 GMT the pair was trading at 0.9240, still up by 0.72% for the day. Support was likely to be received at July 10th low, 0.9094, while resistance was to be met at June 11th high, 0.9475.

Earlier on Thursday an official report stated that Australian economy managed to add 10 300 new job positions in the month of June, considerably outstripping estimates of an increase by only 300 and after the decline in jobs by 700 during May. The number of full-time jobs dropped by 4 400 in June, while part-time jobs were 14 800 more in the same month. In the mean time, unemployment rate in the country rose to its highest level since September 2009, 5.7% during June. The rate was revised up to 5.6% during the preceding month from 5.5% previously, while experts had projected an unemployment rate of 5.6%. According to some experts, there was a 60% probability Australian central bank to reduce the base interest rate to 2.50% at its meeting next month.

Additionally, the Melbourne Institute said, that consumer inflationary expectation indicator rose to 2.6% in July from 2.3% during the previous month.

Meanwhile, US dollar found itself under massive selling pressure, following Bernankes statement on Wednesday that Federal Reserve Bank’s policy should remain accommodative in the foreseeable future, because of higher Unemployment rate and low inflation levels in the country. It became clear, according to FED minutes, that half of the 19 members of the Foreign Open Market Committee (FOMC) voted in favor of terminating monthly asset purchases by the end of this year.

Australian dollar traded higher against the euro as well, with EUR/AUD cross falling by 0.29% to 1.4104.