AUD gains supported by strong employment data - BBH

Analysts at BBH points out that the dollar bloc is stronger, led by the Australian dollar as its 0.8% advance was encouraged by an employment report that was considerably stronger than expected.  

Key Quotes

“Australia added nearly 61k jobs, three times more than the median forecast in the Bloomberg survey, while the February series was revised from a loss of 6.4k jobs to a gain of 2.8k.  These jobs are full-time.  In fact, full-time positions rose 74.5k, while part-time positions fell 13.6k.  Even the unchanged unemployment rate of 5.9% was impressive given that the participation rate rose to 64.8% from 64.6%.”

“The Australian dollar may also be attracting flows over the holiday period.  Strong trade figures from China may have also helped.  China reported a March trade surplus of nearly $24 bln, which nearly twice as large as expected.  Exports jumped 16.4% year-over-year, after a 4% rise in the January-February period (viewed together due to the Lunar New Year distortions).  Imports rose 20.3%, moderating from the 26.4% increase in January-February.”