USD hit its 16-month high as investors betting on rate hikes, Australia saw a sharp fall in employment

USD is heading for its best-performing week in five months against its major counterparts. Investors are betting for earlier interest rate hikes after this week’s inflation data. After all, the latest data have shown the highest US inflation growth rate in the past three decades. Currently, the DXY Index is trading at 95.21, slightly down from its peak earlier in the day at 95.266, which was the highest point since June 2020. On the contrary, EUR and GBP both slipped against USD, currently trading at 1.1445 for EURUSD and 1.3372 for GBPUSD.

In Australia, employment suffered a sharp fall in October as the unemployment rate climbed to 5.2% from 4.6%. Data from yesterday showed that employment numbers fell by 46,300, versus the forecast of +50k. AUDUSD was previously on a downward trend but has managed to gain back some losses at press time. Currently, AUDUSD is trading at 0.7295.