AUD/USD cracks to near 0.6300 after RBA’s unchanged policy, US Job data in focus

• AUD/USD prints a fresh 11-month low at 0.6300 as RBA kept interest rates unchanged.
• The market mood is cautious as the resilient US economy has forced Fed policymakers to support one more interest rate increase.
• Investors await the US JOLTS Job Openings data, which is seen as little unchanged from prior reading of 8.8 million.

The AUD/USD pair witnessed extreme selling pressure after the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) kept interest rates unchanged at 4.10%. The Aussie asset has refreshed its 11-month low at 0.6300 as investors see policy divergence between the Federal Reserve (Fed) and the RBA intact.

As expected, RBA policymakers voted for a stable interest rate policy but cited that some further policy tightening is appropriate. RBA Governor Michele Bullock kept room open for further policy tightening as inflation is more than twice the desired rate of 2% and more interest rates could be needed to bring inflation down in a reasonable timeframe.

Meanwhile, S&P500 futures generated some losses in the London session, portraying a further decline in the risk appetite of the market participants. The broader market mood is cautious as the resilient United States economy has forced Federal Reserve (Fed) policymakers to support one more interest rate increase in the remainder of 2023.

Cleveland Fed Bank President Loretta Mester expressed that the Fed is not done with hiking interest rates. Fed Mester said that one more interest rate hike is well-needed this year and they are required to remain high for a longer period. Interest rates should remain high for long enough until the central bank assesses the impact of policy-tightening yet done.

The US Dollar Index (DXY) prints a fresh 11-month high at 107.25 amid multiple tailwinds and 10-year US Treasury yields jump to near 4.75%.

For now, investors await the US JOLTS Job Openings data for August, which will be published at 14:00 GMT. The number of job openings on the last business day of August is forecast to stay little changed at around 8.8 million.