AUD/USD retreats on mixed employment data, Australia sheds almost 50,000 full-time jobs

• AUD/USD slides on employment miss.
• full-time jobs down almost 50k in January.

AUD/USD is trading down following another mixed data release for Australia, with the pair off session highs to the 0.7920 area.

The Australian Unemployment Rate came in at the expected 5.5%, with a small upside beat for Employment Change, coming in at 16k versus the anticipated 15k.  Despite this, AUD/USD still dropped following an unexpected contraction in full-time employment of -49.8k versus the previous reading of 12.7k, with little offset being provided by part-time employment increasing by 65.9k over the previous 19.5k.

Australia has been burdened by mixed economic data and sluggish growth lately, and the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) looks set to stand pat on interest rates well into next year, while central banks around the world preparing to begin tightening monetary policy and raising rates on better growth and improved inflation expectations. More details about the RBA's plans going forwarded can be expected from RBA Governor Philip Lowe's speech at 22:30 GMT today.

AUD/USD Technicals

The Aussie caught a muhc-needed lift  on Wednesday following better-than-expected inflation data fro mthe US that sent the Greenback trading lower across the board, but softening employment data will make a continuation of bullish momentum difficult for the pair, with intraday action now capped under yesterday's high of 0.7934, and shortside retracements will run into support at 0.7906 and 0.7888. Daily candles still show a piar with plenty of bullish potential, with the Aussie closing higher against the US Dollar for three of the last four trading days, with the 200-day SMA acting as support from 0.7760 and AUD/USD closing back over the 34 EMA at 0.7890.