All Quiet on the Currency Front
AUD
The Aussie dollar holding firm amidst small trading ranges within the holiday season after last week’s rally. A lack of liquidity overall across all markets being the norm and relatively quiet with little to no local Aussie data over the Christmas period in general. Aussie and Asian Equities slightly up with the ASX seeing a 0.4% gain, Shanghai Comp up 0.4% and the NIKKEI seeing the most growth at 1.4%. In Commodities we saw a weakening in Gold by -0.3% and Iron Ore also down by -1.0%. Looking ahead to Friday China will release Manufacturing and Non-Manufacturing PMI data, otherwise little in the form of data looking forward as the market slowly rises out of the Holiday season in anticipation of the New year.
USD
The Aussie trading in small ranges during the holiday period at 0.7233 at time of writing, quite similar to our position since last report having climbed to 0.726 range early this morning but retracing since. The USD slowly weakened over the Christmas period with little liquidity in the market holding true to form during the Christmas Holidays. In the form of data we’ve seen the HPI m/m at 1.1% slightly better than expected 0.9%, the S&P/CS Composite-20 HPI y/y close to par with expectations at 18.4% and the Richmond Manufacturing Index better than expected at 16 above expected 11. In Equities, the market was a little mixed with the Dow Jones alone seeing a positive 0.3% while the S&P 500 ever slightly down -0.1% and the NASDAQ lower by -0.5%. Ahead in the US Market we see data releases tomorrow on the Goods Trade Balance for December from the Census Bureau, the December Prelim Wholesale Inventories release, December Pending Home Sales data and Crude Oil Inventories. Also on Friday we will see the US Unemployment Claims release, Chicago PMI and Natural Gas Storage data. Otherwise still Generally quiet in terms of market moving data headed into the new year.
EUR
AUDEUR at 0.6385 at time of writing, looking relatively flat amidst the low liquidity and little market data resulting in a tight trading range overall. European equities ticking higher from the open with gains across the markets moving beyond 0.5% over the European morning, with the CAC gaining 0.6% while other markets saw a rise of 0.8%. At 8pm today we will see the release of only very low impact data; M3 Money Supply y/y data with little expected change at predicted 7.6% along with Private Loans data for the year expected to also mirror that of last years. Finally, on Thursday we will see the annual Spanish Flash CPI data which will wrap up the Eurozone for the year.
GBP
Aussie at 0.5375 against the Pound losing a little ground since the 0.539 high of the early morning. At 6:00pm tonight we will see the Nationwide HPI m/m report with a forecast of a 0.5% gain compared to last month’s 0.9% and little else overall during the holiday period. In equities very little to be said about the FTSE with no real market change.
NZD
AUD on an upward trend against the NZD at 1.0623 at time of writing, nothing newsworthy happening during the holiday period.