AUD Consolidates Recent Gains

AUD

For the most part the Aussie dollar held firm over a fairly quiet session for data over the weekend, opening flat against all the majors with the exception of the GBP. Asian equities closed higher with the Shanghai Comp +0.6%, Nikkei +0.7% and ASX +1.1%. Commodities were mixed with Crude Oil +1.5%, Gold flat, Silver +1.4%, Iron Ore +0.7%, Copper-0.4% and the outlier Natural Gas was down -15.3%. After a frenetic week, no data was released both locally or out of China over the weekend, the trend continues today with the first piece of meaningful data being the Monetary Policy Meeting Minutes, released tomorrow.

USD

The AUDUSD pair held steady after highs on Friday night of 0.6899, opening this morning flat on Friday at 0.6880. Wall street closed in the red on Friday with the Dow Jones -0.3%, S&P 500 -0.4%, and NASDAQ -0.7%. After a data-heavy week, the dust began to settle on Friday as the University of Michigan Prelim Consumer Sentiment Survey for June printed at 63.9, up from 59.2 and beating expectations of 60.1. The 1 year inflation expectations fell from 4.2% to 3.3%, significantly lower than forecasts of 4.1% while 5-10 year inflation expectations fell marginally to 3.0% as expected. Nothing on the cards today as we observe a Bank Holiday in the US. Some important pieces of data to keep an eye out for this week include Unemployment Claims on Thursday and Flash Manufacturing & Services PMI’s out on Friday. Fed Chair Powell will also testify at the US Senate Banking Committee on Thursday, and his comments could influence expectations for future hikes from the FOMC.

EUR

After briefly flirting with the 0.63 handle and seeing highs of 0.6298 on Friday night, the AUDEUR pair opened flat this morning at 0.6289. European equities closed in the green with the DAX +0.4% and the CAC +1.3%. Friday's session saw the release of some lackluster data with Final CPI y/y coming in flat at 6.1%, Final Core CPI y/y also came in flat at 5.3%. There is no data on the cards today, Europe’s main data releases for the week include French, German and the Eurozone’s Flash Services and Manufacturing PMI’s on Friday.

GBP

The AUDGBP experiences minor loses of around 20 basis points over the weekend session, opening lower this morning at 0.5360. British equites saw a 0.2% decline on Friday's close. A quiet day on Friday for Brits, with only the release of Consumer Inflation Expectations which came in at 3.5%, lower than the previous reading of 3.9%. Another quiet day ahead with only the Rightmove HPI m/m which read at 0.0% after a previous 1.8%. A bit more going on this week with the CPI figures released on Wednesday and the Bank of England's Interest Rate announcement on Thursday, followed by the Flash Manufacturing & Services PMIs on Friday.

NZD

The AUDNZD remained firm with a lack of data to support any meaningful movement, opening flat this morning at 1.1033. Friday saw the release of BusinessNZ Manufacturing Index which saw a slight improvement from 48.8 to read at 48.9. This morning we saw the release of BusinessNZ Services Index coming in at 53.3 beating previous readings of 50.1.