Investing.com - The Australian dollar rose to three-week highs against its U.S. counterpart on Monday, despite the release of tepid Australian data, as Friday's downbeat U.S. jobs report continued to weigh on the greenback.
AUD/USD hit 0.9042 during early European trade, the pair's highest since December 12; the pair subsequently consolidated at 0.9036, gaining 0.44%.
The pair was likely to find support at 0.8936, the low of January 6 and resistance at 0.9118, the high of January 6.
Data earlier showed that job advertizements in Australia dropped by 0.7% in December, after a 0.9% decline the previous month.
A separate report showed that home loans in Australia rose 1.1% in November, exceeding expectations for a 1% increase, after an upwardly revised 1.1% rise in October.
Meanwhile, the greenback remained under pressure after Friday’s nonfarm payrolls report showed that the U.S. economy added 74,000 jobs in December, the smallest increase since January 2011 and well below expectations for 196,000 new jobs.
The unemployment rate fell to a five year low of 6.7% from 7% in November, but this was due in part to people dropping out of the labor force.
The surprisingly weak data tempered expectations that the Fed would cut its stimulus program again this month. The Fed cited a stronger labor market in its decision to cut its asset purchase program by USD10 billion in December, reducing it to USD75 billion-a-month.
The Aussie was also higher against the euro, with EUR/AUD rising 0.35% to 1.5141.