Investing.com - The Aussie jumped on Thursday in Asia after a surprise bounce in May jobs and after the Federal Reserve laid out its forecasts for rates and trimming its balance sheet.
Australia reported jobs data with the employment change for May surging by 42,000 jobs, well past the 10,000 new workers expected under a participation rate of 64.9, a tad above the 64.8% seen and a drop in the unemployment rate to 5.5% from 5.7% forecast. AUD/USD gained 0.38% to 0.7618, while USD/JPY changed hands at 109.57, down 0.02%.
Australia's employment figures have traditionally been volatile but the trend in recent months has pointed to an improvement in the labor market, Steven Milch, chief economist at Suncorp, said.
"It's certainly strong. It's the third consecutive month of strong numbers, stronger than what we were expecting," he said.
Earlier in New Zealand, first quarter GDP rose 0.5% on quarter, missing the 0.7% gain seen and at 2.5% on year, below the 2.7% expected.
NZD/USD traded at 0.7248, down 0.29% after of the data.
The Fed raised interest rates as expected to 1.25% on Wednesday, the second quarter percentage point hike in three months and said it would begin cutting its holdings of bonds and other securities this year as previously announced and maintained a view for three rate hikes this year.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was last quoted down 0.03% to 96.88.
Overnight, the dollar trended weaker after a pair of economic reports undershot expectations triggering concerns about a slowdown in the U.S. economy.
U.S. consumer prices, a measure of inflation, fell 0.1% in May, as a fall in energy prices, airline fares and apparel weighed on the pace of inflation, the labor department said. The measure of inflation missed forecasts of a 0.2% rise.
Meanwhile Core Retail Sales sustained their biggest drop in 16 months to 0.3%, according to the commerce department.