AUD/USD establishes above 0.7040 on falling yields, Fed Powell eyed

• AUD/USD is balancing above 0.7040 as DXY has turned bearish ahead of Fed Powell’s speech.
• The aussie bulls have ignored the subdued aussie jobless rate.
• Higher aussie Employment Change will provide more room for the RBA to stretch interest rates.

The AUD/USD pair has displayed a mild correction after hitting a fresh weekly high of 0.7070 in the late New York session. The aussie dollar is advancing gradually this week after sensing a responsive buying action near 0.6850 on Wednesday. The antipodean has ignored the mixed employment data and has got strengthened against the greenback.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics reported the Unemployment Rate at 3.9%, unchanged from the prior print but came higher than the expectation of 3.8%. However, the economy has managed to generate significant job opportunities in May. The Employment Change has landed at 60.6k, extremely higher than the expectations of 25k and the prior print of 4k.

An unchanged Unemployment Rate and higher job additions in the labor market will support the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) to tighten policy without any hesitation. A tight labor market delights the central bank in policy tightening measures as it feels the least slowdown worries. The RBA would be able to consider rate hike options beyond the 25 basis points (bps) rate.

Meanwhile, the US dollar index (DXY) extended its weakness on Thursday after slipping below the crucial support of 104.67. Falling US Treasury yields have brought a sell-off in the DXY. The 10-year US Treasury yields have eased 5.9% and have slipped to 3.19%. A 75 bps rate hike announcement by the Federal Reserve (Fed) has trimmed the DXY’s appeal vigorously. Going forward, investors’ focus will remain on the speech from Fed chair Jerome Powell, which is due on Friday. The speech is expected to dictate the rationale behind featuring a bumper rate hike.