AUD/USD drops below 0.7800 as USD recovery picks up steam
- AUD/USD extends its daily slide in early American session.
- US Dollar Index continues to edge higher toward 92.00.
- Mixed macroeconomic data releases from US failed to trigger a significant market reaction.
The AUD/USD pair came under renewed bearish pressure in the early trading hours of the American session on Thursday and touched a daily low of 0.7771. As of writing, the pair was down 0.1% on a daily basis at 0.7785.
DXY retraces majority of Wednesday's drop
The impressive upsurge witnessed in the US Treasury bond yields continues to fuel the USD's rebound. After losing 0.5% on the day amid the FOMC's dovish policy outlook, the US Dollar Index erased a large portion of its losses and was last seen gaining 0.35% on the day at 91.75. Meanwhile, the benchmark 10-year US T-bond yield is at its highest level in nearly 14 months at 1.738%, up 5.6%.
Earlier in the session, the data from the US showed that the weekly Initial Jobless Claims rose to 770,000 and came in much worse than the market expectation of 700,000. On a positive note, however, the Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Index jumped to 51.8 in March and surpassed analysts' estimate of 23.1 by a wide margin.
On the other hand, the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported that the Unemployment Rate in February dropped to 5.8% with the Employment Change arriving at +88,700. Although the upbeat jobs report helped the AUD preserve its strength against its rivals during the Asian session, the USD's market valuation remains the primary driver of AUD/USD.
On Friday, February Retail Sales data from Australia will be looked upon for fresh impetus.
Technical levels to watch for