In Wednesday’s session, the AUD/USD fell towards 0.6560 after initially rising above 0.6600. The Federal Reserve (Fed) didn’t change its policy as expected but Jerome Powell considered that cutting in March wasn’t likely during its presser which made the US Dollar recover. In addition, Jerome Powell noted that the inflation data from the last six months was welcomed but that the committee needs to see further data to be confident. He also added that it seems likely that the bank will achieve that mentioned confidence and that the officials consider it appropriate to eventually cut rates.
What brought the pair down was that while markets were expecting some timetable for 2024 rate cuts, Powell considered that the bank wouldn’t likely be confident enough in March to start the easing cycle. For the next sessions, incoming data will determine the pace of the pair. On Thursday, the US will release weekly Jobless Claims, and on Friday, January’s Nonfarm Payrolls figures. Indicators on the daily chart indicate that buyers are holding their ground but as long as they fail to conquer the 20-day Simple Moving Average (SMA), the outlook won’t be bullish for the immediate short term. On the downside, as long as it 100-day SMA, the overall trend will remain positive.
