AUD/JPY balances in a 93.50-93.60 range, eyeing the 94.00 mark amid broader weakness in the yen

• AUD/JPY is oscillating in a tight range after an upside move in early Tokyo.
• Investors have shrugged off poor performance from the Aussie’s labor market.
• BOJ’s Kuroda is still inclined to further stimulus in Japan despite higher commodity prices.

The AUD/JPY pair is displaying back and forth moves in a narrow range of 93.50-93.60 in the Asian session amid lower volumes due to the holiday-truncated week. The cross is inching higher swiftly in the Asian session as the market participants shrugged off the poor Unemployment data reported by the Australian Bureau of Statistics on Thursday.

The Australian Unemployment Rate landed at 4%, higher than the market consensus of 3.9% but similar to the prior figure of 4%. This indicates that the Australian administration needs more time to push jobless rates below 4%. Unless a consistency in lower Unemployment Rate gets achieved, an interest rate hike will be less likely. Meanwhile, the Australian labor market added only 17.9k new jobs against the expectation of 40K. This indicates that a loose labor market is going to persist longer and the Aussie economy may need more stimulus in achieving full employment levels.

On the Tokyo front, Bank of Japan (BOJ)’s Governor Haruhiko Kuroda in his speech on Wednesday focused on rising inflation and declining households’ real income. Advancing energy bills and food item prices are impacting the household’s income. Also, the surging commodities prices are affecting the corporate margins. However, stimulus from the BOJ will continue to inject into the economy as Japan’s growth has yet not reached its pre-pandemic levels.