AUD/JPY jumps 30 pips on surprisingly upbeat Australia employment data

• AUD/JPY takes the bids to renew intraday high during the five-day uptrend.
• Australia Employment Change jump, Unemployment Rate stays intact in March.
• BoJ’s Ueda tries to defend easy money policy but fails so far.
• Yields hold lower grounds as recession, geopolitical woes underpin bond demand.

AUD/JPY refreshes intraday high near 89.35 as the upbeat Aussie employment report for March favors bulls during five days of dominance on early Thursday. However, a divergence in the market’s bias towards the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) and the Bank of Japan (BoJ), as well as downbeat yields, prod the cross-currency pair buyers.

Australia’s headline Employment Change jumps by 53K versus 20K expected and 64.6K prior while the Unemployment Rate remained unchanged versus expectation of marking the 3.6% figure. Further, the Participation Rate also improved to 66.7% versus market forecasts of reprinting the 66.6% mark.

Also read: Breaking: Aussie jumps on strong labour market report

The latest upbeat Aussie data contrasts the previous day’s dovish remarks from t Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) Assistant Governor (Financial System) Michele Bullock to keep the AUD/JPY bears hopeful.

On the other hand, Bank of Japan (BoJ) Governor Kazuo Ueda tried to defend the Japanese central bank’s easy-money policy while speaking at the Group of Seven (G7) nations’ gathering in Washington. “BoJ will continue monetary easing until the price target is stable and sustainably achieved,” said BoJ’s Ueda while also adding that Japan's consumer inflation is currently around 3% but likely to slow ahead.

It’s worth noting that the benchmark Treasury bond yields remain depressed after printing the first daily loss of the week the previous day. On Wednesday, the US 10-year Treasury bond yields snapped a three-day uptrend with mild losses to around 3.40% while the two-year counterpart also eased to 3.96% by marking the first daily negative in five.

While tracing the clues behind the bond buying, the fears of economic slowdown and geopolitical tensions emanating from China and North Korea seem to gain major attention.

Moving on, China’s trade numbers for March will be important to watch for immediate directions but major attention should be given to the bond market moves and the BoJ updates.

Technical analysis

Despite the latest run-up, AUD/JPY bulls should remain cautious until the quote stays below a six-week-old descending resistance line near 89.50 and the 90.00 round figure. On the other hand, a convergence of an upward-sloping support line from March 24 and the 21-DMA, around 88.45 by the press time, offers strong downside support to the pair.