ForexLive Asia-Pacific FX news wrap: AUD higher on strong job report | Forexlive

AUD/USD
popped higher on the March jobs report, topping out on the session
circa 0.6720 and its not much below there as I update. The data
indicated jobs added in March beat estimates (53K vs +20k expected),
as did the unemployment rate (3.5% vs. 3.6% expected), even while the
participation rate climbed. Reserve Bank of Australia Deputy Governor
Bullock spoke yesterday about the Bank’s concerns over how 10
consecutive cash rate hikes would impact the employment market. The
data today will go some way towards easing those worries and, at the
margin, add to a case for an RBA rate hike in May. This is still
subject to the next official inflation report. Q1 CPI is due from the
Australian Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday, April 26. Monthly CPI
reports have suggested the CPI has peaked, but the quarterly CPI is a
better quality, more comprehensive, indicator

News
of impact was light. North Korea launched an ICBM. Japan issued an
emergency warning for the island prefecture of Hokkaido in response, initially assessing that the missile could land on or near the island.

Bank
of Japan Governor Ueda spoke, reiterating that it is the Bank’s
view that inflation in Japan will fall below the 2% target after the
middle of this. Ueda also said, yet again, that the BOJ will continue
with monetary easing until price stability is achieved in a stable
and sustainable way. To further drive home the easing point he said that the risk of inflation falling below its target is greater
than that of any problems that would be caused by a CPI overshoot
above target.

As
I post we are still awaiting trade data for March from China. We’ve had
remarks from a Customs official warning the country’s trade is
facing difficulties ahead due to geopolitics and slack demand. We
did, however, get trade info for exports and imports in the first
quarter (January – March 2023) which showed resilience.

Apart
from the Australian dollar already mentioned above, major FX has
traded in small ranges only.

Asian
equity markets: