AUD/USD edges lower toward 0.6850 as USD preserves strength
- AUD/USD is looking to close modestly lower on Thursday.
- US Dollar Index clings to daily gains near 97.30.
- Unemployment Rate in Australia rose to 7.1% in May.
The AUD/USD pair came under pressure during the Asian trading hours after gloomy labour market data from Australia and dropped below 0.6840. Although the pair staged a rebound during the European session, it struggled to extend its recovery and turned south in the American session. As of writing, AUD/USD was down 0.48% on the day at 0.6851.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics announced on Thursday that the Unemployment Rate in May rose to 7.1% from 6.4% in April and came in worse than the market expectation of 7%.
Commenting on the data, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said that the jobs blow from coronavirus was "devastating." Meanwhile, the underlying details of the report revealed that the Employment Change in May was -227,700.
DXY pushes higher on Thursday
In the second half of the day, the risk-off market environment and the heavy selling pressure surrounding major European currencies, especially the GBP, provided a boost to the greenback.
After staying relatively quiet near 97.00 for the majority of the day, the US Dollar Index gained traction and was last seen gaining 0.3% on the day at 97.37. The data the US showed that weekly Initial Jobless Claims edged lower to 1.5 million in the week ending June 12 and Philly Fed Manufacturing Index rose sharply to 27.5 in June from -43.1 in May.
There won't be any significant macroeconomic data releases that could impact AUD/USD movements on Friday and the risk perception is likely to remain as the primary driver.
Technical levels to watch for