AUD/USD SEESAWS AROUND MID-0.6600S AMID FRAGILE MARKETS, MIXED CONCERNS ABOUT FED - ll

Elsewhere, US Weekly Initial Jobless Claims dropped to 192K for the week ended on March 10 versus 205K expected and 212K prior whereas the four-week average figure dropped to 196.5K versus 197.25K prior (revised). Further, Housing Starts jumped to 1.45M in February from 1.321M previous reading and 1.31M analysts’ estimations while the Housing Starts jumped to 1.524M during the said month versus 1.34M expected and 1.339M prior. Additionally, the Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Survey gauge came in as -23.2 compared to -14.5 consensus and -24.3 prior.

At home, Australia’s headline Employment Change jumps by 64.6K versus 48.5K expected and 11.5K prior while the Unemployment Rate also dropped to 3.5% from 3.7% previous readings and 3.6% expected. Furthermore, Australia’s Consumer Inflation Expectations eased to 5.0% for March versus 5.4% market forecasts and 5.1% prior.

Amid these plays, United States 10-year and two-year Treasury bond yields are down for the second consecutive week despite the previous day’s rebound from the multi-day low. Further, Wall Street closed in the green with more than 1.0% gains by each of the benchmark indices whereas US Dollar Index (DXY) marked the negative daily closing. It’s worth mentioning that the Fed fund futures recently bolster the case of the US central bank’s 0.25% rate hike in the next week’s monetary policy meeting.

Moving on, the Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index for March and the UoM 5-year Inflation Expectation for clear directions as these are the final clues for the next week’s Fed meeting.