Australian dollar rises after strong jobs data
The Australian dollar rose against most major currencies on Thursday, following strong economic data, while investors parse monetary policy decisions by several global central banks.
The Australian economy added 366.1K jobs during the past month, beating forecasts of 203K jobs.
Australia's unemployment rate fell to 4.6% in November from 5.2% in October, beating forecasts of a drop to 5%.
The Fed kept the interest rate between zero and 0.25% unchanged, and to reduce asset purchases by $30 billion per month, starting in January, double of what was previously announced of $15 billion per month.
The European Central Bank reveled its plan to end the bond-purchasing program worth 1.85 trillion euros ($2.2 trillion) by the end of March, but decided to continue with the asset purchase program launched before the coronavirus pandemic.
The Bank of England surprised the markets after it decided to raise interest rates by 15 basis points to 0.25%, in the first time since the beginning of the pandemic.
As of 16:26 GMT, AUD/USD rose 0.3% to 0.7194.
Wall Street open mixed after slew of monetary policy decisions
The main US stocks were mixed in early trading on Thursday, as investors parse monetary policy decisions by the Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank and the Bank of England.
The Fed kept the interest rate between zero and 0.25% unchanged, and to reduce asset purchases by $30 billion per month, starting in January, double of what was previously announced of $15 billion per month.
The European Central Bank reveled its plan to end the bond-purchasing program worth 1.85 trillion euros ($2.2 trillion) by the end of March, but decided to continue with the asset purchase program launched before the coronavirus pandemic.
The Bank of England surprised the markets after it decided to raise interest rates by 15 basis points to 0.25%, in the first time since the beginning of the pandemic.
The US initial unemployment claims reached 206K last week, missing forecasts of 195K.
As for stocks, Dow Jones rose 0.5% or 184 points to 36,111 as of 15:22 GMT, and S&P 500 rose 0.1% or 3 points to 4,713, while Nasdaq fell 0.6% or 104 point to 15,461.
Copper rises over 3% on falling dollar Fed's decisions
Copper prices rose on Thursday, as the US dollar fell against most major currencies, following the Federal Reserve's decisions.
The Fed kept the interest rate between zero and 0.25% unchanged, and to reduce asset purchases by $30 billion per month, starting in January, double of what was previously announced of $15 billion per month.
The Fed estimated the US economy would grow by 5.5% in 2021, from 5.9% in previous forecasts, with a 4% growth in 2022 from previous estimates of 3.8%, to reach 2.2% in 2023 from 2.5% in previous estimates.
The central bank also projected inflation to rise this year to 5.3% from 4.2% in previous forecasts, and expected it to rise to 2.6% in 2022 from 2.2%.
The dollar index fell against a basket of major currencies by 0.5% to 95.9 points as of 20:26 GMT, after hitting a high of 96.4 points and a low of 95.8 points.
Copper March futures rose 3.2% to $4.31 per pound as of 14:37 GMT.
