Forex - Aussie up after strong ANZ job ads survey

Investing.com - The Australian dollar posted further gains on Monday as local data helped the currency amid a weak dollar trend.

AUD/USD traded at 0.8230, up 0.35%, while USD/JPY changed hands at 118.36, down 0.10%. EUR/USD traded at 1.1856, up 0.12%.

In Australia, ANZ December job ads rose 1.8%, compared to a 0.7% gain in November for the fastest pace in 2.5 years. But housing finance in the month fell 0.7%, compared to a gain of 2.0% expected month-on-month.

Last week, the dollar fell against a basket of other major currencies on Friday after weak wage growth in the latest U.S. jobs report saw investors push back expectations for a rate hike by the Federal Reserve.

The Labor Department reported that the U.S.economy added 252,000 jobs in December more than the 240,000 forecast by economists. The unemployment rate ticked down to a six-and-a-half year low 5.6% from 5.8% in November.Economists had forecast a decline to 5.7%.

But the report showed that average earnings fell by 0.2% in December, missing expectations for a 0.2% increase and were up by only 1.7% from a year earlier.

The drop in average earnings prompted investors to take profits in the dollar, as markets pushed back expectations for the first hike in U.S. interest rates to late-2015 from mid-2015 before the report.

In the euro zone, data on Friday showing that industrial output fell in both Germany and France in November, while German exports also fell, fuelling speculation that the European Central Bank will embark on full blown quantitative easing as soon as its next meeting on Jan. 22.

The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, fell 0.12% to 92.06 on Friday.

In the week ahead, markets will be looking ahead to Wednesday’s report on U.S. retail sales, as well as Friday’s reports on consumer sentiment and factory output. The euro zone is to release revised data on consumer inflation and China is to release what will be closely watched trade data.

On Monday, the Bank of Canada is to publish its quarterly business outlook survey. In the U.S., Atlanta Federal Reserve President Dennis Lockhart is to speak.