The Australian dollar (AUD) as well as shares listed in the Australian Securities Exchange from Standard & Poor’s (S&P/ASX 200) enjoyed a positive trend following an increase in the U.S. payrolls that cheered investors.
Specifically, the AUD strengthened against the US dollar (USD) by around 1.24%, trading from 0.7330 USD on Friday to 0.7239 USD at 7:21 AM (AEDT) on Monday. Similarly, the S&P/ASX 200 index increased 0.95% or 49.09 points to 5,200.70 by 11:28 AM (AEDT).
Australia’s top four largest banks all enjoyed higher value with Commonwealth Bank (CBA) seeing a 1.6% increase.
In November, the US non-farm area saw a 211,000-worker increase. This is much more than the predictions of economists, according to Imre Speizer, senior market strategist at Australia’s second largest bank Westpac (WBC). This US optimism is an indication that the largest economy in the world is tough enough to endure the country’s first interest-rate hike in almost 10 years.
But the boost in Australian shares has not completely reversed the 1.5 percent drop experienced last Friday. According to market strategist Evan Lucas at IG, an international CFD trader and FX provider, there is no “real conviction” or “clear direction” in being long or short.
On the other hand, WBC’s Speizer expected the AUD to maintain its rising momentum.
