Australian Dollar trades mixed on renewed Middle East conflicts, job data awaited

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The Australian Dollar (AUD) demonstrates a mixed performance against its major currency peers, still trading 0.2% lower to near 0.7050 against the US Dollar (USD) during the European trading session on Monday, even after recovering a major chunk of its opening losses.

Australian Dollar exhibits mixed performance against its major pairs amid a risk-off mood.
The US-Iran first round of talks fails as Tehran refuses to give up its nuclear ambitions.
Investors await the US PPI and the Australian employment data for March.

Australian Dollar Price Today

The table below shows the percentage change of Australian Dollar (AUD) against listed major currencies today. Australian Dollar was the strongest against the Euro.

	USD	EUR	GBP	JPY	CAD	AUD	NZD	CHF
USD		0.25%	0.27%	0.21%	0.05%	0.19%	0.06%	0.12%
EUR	-0.25%		-0.00%	-0.04%	-0.20%	-0.09%	-0.20%	-0.09%
GBP	-0.27%	0.00%		-0.06%	-0.22%	-0.08%	-0.20%	-0.13%
JPY	-0.21%	0.04%	0.06%		-0.21%	-0.06%	-0.19%	-0.06%
CAD	-0.05%	0.20%	0.22%	0.21%		0.18%	0.03%	0.09%
AUD	-0.19%	0.09%	0.08%	0.06%	-0.18%		-0.11%	0.02%
NZD	-0.06%	0.20%	0.20%	0.19%	-0.03%	0.11%		0.10%
CHF	-0.12%	0.09%	0.13%	0.06%	-0.09%	-0.02%	-0.10%

The heat map shows percentage changes of major currencies against each other. The base currency is picked from the left column, while the quote currency is picked from the top row. For example, if you pick the Australian Dollar from the left column and move along the horizontal line to the US Dollar, the percentage change displayed in the box will represent AUD (base)/USD (quote).

Market sentiment remains risk-averse amid the failure of the first round of negotiations between the United States (US) and Iran, which has resulted in a sharp recovery in oil prices. S&P 500 futures trade over 0.6% lower to near 0.6760, reflecting a dismal market mood.

Over the weekend, scheduled talks between the US and Iran in Pakistan, regarding a permanent ceasefire, failed, as Tehran denies giving up its intentions to build nuclear facilities.

Renewed Middle East conflicts have improved the safe-haven demand of the US Dollar (USD). As of writing, the US Dollar Index (DXY), which tracks the Greenback’s value against six major currencies, trades 0.25% higher to near 99.00.

On the macro front, investors await Australian labor market data for March, which will be released on Thursday. The data is expected to show that the economy created 20K jobs, lower than 48.9K in February. The Unemployment Rate is seen steady at 4.3%.

In the US, investors await the Producer Price Index (PPI) data for March, which will be released on Tuesday. Investors will pay close attention to the producer inflation data to get fresh cues on the Federal Reserve’s (Fed) monetary policy outlook. Month-on-Month US headline PPI is expected to have risen at a faster pace of 1.2% against the previous reading of 0.7%.

Economic Indicator

Employment Change s.a.

The Employment Change released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics is a measure of the change in the number of employed people in Australia. The statistic is adjusted to remove the influence of seasonal trends. Generally speaking, a rise in Employment Change has positive implications for consumer spending, stimulates economic growth, and is bullish for the Australian Dollar (AUD). A low reading, on the other hand, is seen as bearish.