AUD Creeps Higher in slow Conditions
AUD
The Aussie Dollar continues its gradual climb against most majors among tight trading conditions during a relatively quiet week in the market. Not much in the form of local data in the last few days, a theme that will persist into end of week. Yesterday, the NAB Business Confidence release showed positive sentiment among Australian businesses at 3, an improvement compared to the last release -12. In Equities the ASX climbed by 1.1% while in Commodities Gold stays unmoved while Iron ore fell by 0.4%.The only data due today is the Westpac Consumer Sentiment release at 10:30 this morning which is unlikely to move the needle. Out of China in the next three days we’ll be seeing the M2 Money Supply y/y data and New Loans data. Looking further ahead locally; Thursday we’ll get the MI Inflation Expectations release and finally on Friday RBA’s Governor Philip Lowe will be speaking, perhaps offering a better insight to monetary policy changes for the year, specifically any clues for timing of possible future rate hikes.
USD
The Aussie saw some positive movement in a slightly less risky market climate as a result of a quieter few days. At time of writing in the Aussie is up trading at 0.7147 against the Greenback as it continues the gradual assent since last Saturday. US equities remained buoyant overnight with the NASDAQ and the Dow Jones both up 0.6%, while the S&P 500 was 0.3% higher. Meanwhile Crude Oil down by -2.4%. Looking ahead tomorrow we’ll be getting the Final wholesale and Crude Oil Inventories, Followed by FOMC Member Bowman and Mester speaking online at US and European events on monetary policy respectively. We will also see the 10 year Bond Auctions which should wrap up the Thursday. The most hotly anticipated news for the week comes out on Friday with the data releases of CPI and Core CPI followed by Unemployment claims.
EUR
In a common theme, the Aussie finds itself climbing against the Euro currently at 0.6255 at time of writing. Yesterday French Trade Balance printed at-11.3B worse than projected -9.1B and previous -9.8B. Italian Retail Sales fared better at 0.9% against forecasted-0.4% and previous -0.4%. In Equities the DAX is up 0.2%. Later today we are set to see the German Trade Balance release, Italian Industrial Production Output and German 30-y bond auctions. In more significant news, Thursday night will see the release of the EU Economic Forecasts that may see influence some market movement for the Eurozone.
GBP
Following the trend the Aussie finds itself gaining against the Pound currently at 0.5272 at time of writing. In Equities FTSE is down by 0.1% but in terms of local market data it is relatively quiet out of the UK today. Looking ahead we are set to have Bank of England’s Governor Baily speak Thursday night, which may give some insight on timing for future monetary policy changes. There's also a slew of releases from the UK on Friday evening with the Prelim GDP q/q release followed by Construction Output, GDP/m/m, Industrial and Manufacturing production figures and Prelim investment data.
NZD
The Aussie dollar currently finds itself up against its little cousin at 1.07490 at time of writing, having struggled to make much headway through the high 1.07s since the start of the month. Kiwi inflation expectations are due this afternoon at 1pm being the only real news from across the ditch.