- AUD/USD is holding in bullish territory around 0.6900.
- RBA sentiment has boosted the Aussie this week so far.
AUD/USD has been consolidating around 0.6900 for the best part of New York day and in early Asia. The pair rallied on US dollar weakness on Tuesday but that came to a head at 0.6912 the high for the day.
Currently, the Reserve Bank of Australia's governor Phillip Lowe is speaking who says that there will be further increases to the cash rate for the months ahead. Traders are looking for any word of a 75bp hike from the governor but so far in the speech there has been no mention of such magnitude and AUD/USD is stuck around 0.6900.
The Aussie already climbed on Tuesday following the RBA's signal in its minutes that it is primed for further monetary tightening to add to its recent surprisingly large rate hike, as policymakers vowed to stay firm in their fight against soaring inflation. The board said the current level of interest rates "was still very low for an economy with a tight labour market and facing a period of higher inflation."
The governor touched on the recent Jobs data that was released last week. This showed net employment in Australia surged 88,400 in June from May, nearly thrice that of market forecasts of a 30,000 increase, while the Unemployment Rate dived to a 48-year low of 3.5%. Coupled with rising inflation risks on a global scale, the bias is on a firmer Aussie.