Investing.com - The Australian dollar rose against its U.S. counterpart on Monday, as investors locked in profits on the greenback after the release of mostly positive U.S. employment data on Friday.
AUD/USD hit 0.8683 during late Asian trade, the pair's highest since November 5; the pair subsequently consolidated at 0.8677, gaining 0.50%.
The pair was likely to find support at 0.8538, Friday's low and a four-month low and resistance at 0.8764, the high of November 5.
On Friday, the Labor Department reported that the U.S. economy added 214,000 jobs in October, missing expectations for jobs growth of 231,000.
September’s figure was revised up to 256,000 from a previously reported 248,000 and August’s figure was also revised up to 203,000 from 180,000 pointing to underlying strength in the labor market.
The U.S. unemployment rate ticked down to a fresh six-year low of 5.8% from 5.9% in September.
The data prompted investors to sell the greenback to lock in gains following its recent rally, but did little to alter expectations that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates ahead of its other major peers.
In Australia, data on Monday showed that home loans fell 0.7% in September, confounding expectations for a 0.3% downtick, after a 0.9% decline the previous month.
The Aussie was higher against the euro, with EUR/AUD shedding 0.29% to 1.4383.