The Australian dollar fell in European trade on Thursday against main rivals, extending losses for the third straight session against the US dollar and backing off three-week highs on profit-taking.

It comes amid mounting pressures following grim Australian labor data, which showed the economy lost jobs in February for the first time in a year, boosting the odds of an RBA rate cut in April.

The Price

The AUD/USD pair fell 0.45% today to 0.6329, with a session-high at 0.6364.

Aussie lost 0.1% yesterday against the dollar, marking the second loss in a row on profit-taking away from three-week highs at 63.91..

Australian Labor 

Australia’s economy lost 52.8 thousand new jobs in February, the first such drop since March 2024,  and missing estimates of an addition of 30.8 thousand new jobs. 

Australia’s unemployment rate steadied at 4.1% in February as expected, same as January.

Australian Rates

Following the data, the odds of a 0.25% interest rate cut by the Reserve Bank of Australia in April rose to 30%.

The odds of such a cut in May rose from 70% to 80%.

The RBA cut interest rates last month for the first time in four days but warned that further rate cuts might be delayed due to the sudden strength of the labor market, which could boost inflation.

Australia’s economy lost 52.8 thousand new jobs in February, the first such drop since March 2024,  and missing estimates of an addition of 30.8 thousand new jobs. 

Australia’s unemployment rate steadied at 4.1% in February as expected, same as January, showing the stability and resilience of the labor market. 

Most cryptocurrencies gained ground on Wednesday as demand resumes on high-risk assets, with ripple expanding its gains to become the third highest cryptocurrency in market value after bitcoin and ethereum. 

The Federal Reserve voted to maintain interest rates unchanged today at below 4.5%.

Fed officials said the US economy is growing strongly, and lauded the labor market as unemployment falls. 

However, the Fed still sees inflation as still high, asserting the ongoing goal of bringing inflation towards 2% in the long term.

Fed officials also revised their forecasts on interest rates and other economic indicators until 2027.

Fed’s growth forecasts for 2025 fell to 1.7% from 2.1% in previous forecasts, while the Fed expects core prices to rise by 2.8% this year, up 0.3% from previous forecasts.

The Fed still expects two interest rate cuts in 2026, and another cut in 2027, bringing long-term interest rates at around 3%.

Ripple is strongly buoyed by increasing demand and usage by banking services and cross-border money transfer companies.

Ripple

Ripple rallied 11% on Coinmarketcap as of 20:40 GMT to $2.49, with total market value rising to $145.2 billion.