The Australian dollar was lower today after world-wide confidence was dented by news on Friday of weaker-than-expected employment growth in the US in March.
The Australian dollar was trading at $US1.0373 in late afternoon trading compared with $US1.0416 late on Friday.
The US jobs report showed employers added 88,000 jobs in March--below forecasts for 200,000. The unemployment rate fell one-tenth of a percentage point to 7.6 per cent - though the decline was largely a result of people dropping out of the work force.
The weakness dampened talk that the US Federal Reserve might soon consider trimming back some of the stimulus it has been injecting into the US economy to support economic growth.
"The US labour market remains far from normal ... the nonfarm payrolls data will push out expectations of the Fed winding back the pace of asset purchases," ANZ Bank said in a note to clients.
News Portugal's constitutional court rejected some austerity measures being forced on the country also sent shudders through world markets.
"The result is that there's a hole in the austerity plan [in Portugal] and everyone else is looking to see what happens. Europe has no growth plan and austerity into recessions is unpopular," Societe Generale global macro strategist Kit Juckes said.
With US corporate-earnings season getting ready to kick off later trade in the Australian dollar - a risk barometer for global markets - was further muted.
Traders are expecting some weaker profit announcements in the US which will add to the fresh wave of gloom that has enveloped markets since the payrolls data was announced, CMC Market currency strategist Tim Waterer said.
"Traders are anticipating some slightly weaker results from corporate America than what we have become accustomed to in prior earnings seasons," he said.
Locally the number of job ads, as surveyed by the ANZ Bank, fell in March but not by enough to spark fresh talk of interest-rate cuts.
The total number of job ads in Australian newspapers and on the internet fell 1.5 per cent in seasonally adjusted terms in March from February, according to ANZ.
"Job advertisements are now modestly higher than their levels three months ago," ANZ Bank head of Australian macroeconomics Katie Dean said. "However, it is too early to tell whether this indicates a sustained pick up in hiring intentions."
The data comes ahead of official employment data for March on Thursday.
A Dow Jones Newswires survey of 18 economists showed on average an expected fall of 10,000 jobs in the month following a surge by more than 70,000 last month. Unemployment is expected to remain at 5.4 per cent.
