Australia’s dollar halted a two-day advance before data tomorrow that may show the unemployment rate climbed to the highest in three months. The so-called Aussie failed to extend gains amid speculation the Reserve Bank of Australia will lower interest rates next month to help spur growth in the labor market. Demand for the South Pacific nation’s currency was supported after prices for iron ore, Australia’s biggest export, surged to a two-month high. New Zealand’s currency, nicknamed the kiwi, dropped as Asian stocks followed a slide in global stocks. “The basic outlook is that employment growth remains weak,� said Greg Gibbs, a senior currency strategist at Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc in Singapore. “There are reasons to be more downbeat on the Aussie in the near term.� The Australian dollar was little changed from yesterday at $1.0201 at 1:47 p.m. in Sydney after rising 0.2 percent in the previous two days. It was unchanged at 79.86 yen. New Zealand’s currency dropped 0.3 percent to 81.58 U.S. cents. It bought 63.85 yen, 0.2 percent lower than the close in New York. Australia’s 10-year bond yield was unchanged at 3.07 percent. New Zealand’s swap rate, a fixed payment made to receive floating rates, was at 2.62 percent from 2.625 percent. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index (MXAP) of shares declined 0.9 percent. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index fell 1 percent yesterday. Jobless Rate The jobless rate in Australia probably rose to 5.3 percent in September from 5.1 percent in the previous month, according to the median estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News before the statistics bureau releases the report tomorrow. If confirmed, that would be the highest since June. Interest-rate swaps data compiled by Bloomberg show traders see a 77 percent chance the RBA will lower its overnight cash rate target by 25 basis points to 3 percent at a meeting on Nov. 6. A basis point is 0.01 percentage point. The Aussie rose 2.3 percent in the past year, according to Bloomberg Correlation-Weighted Indexes. Its New Zealand counterpart climbed 4.8 percent, the best performance after the Canadian dollar among the 10 developed-nation currencies tracked by the gauge. Physical iron ore with 62 percent content at the Chinese port of Tianjin jumped 6.2 percent yesterday to $117.20 a ton, the highest close since Aug. 1, according to The Steel Index Ltd. China is Australia’s biggest trading partner and New Zealand’s second-biggest export destination. A gauge of Australian consumer confidence for October rose 1 percent to 99.2, according to a Westpac Banking Corp. (WBC) and Melbourne Institute survey taken Oct. 1-7 and released today. The index remained below 100, which indicates pessimists outnumber optimists, for an eighth straight month, the longest stretch since the global financial crisis sparked by the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. in 2008. To contact the reporter on this story: Kristine Aquino in Singapore at kaquino1@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Rocky Swift at rswift5@bloomberg.net

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