US Data Continues to Wobble
AUD
Minimal movement overnight with the Aussie Dollar opening mostly flat this morning with the exception of the US pair. Asian equities were mixed on the close with the ASX -0.3%, Shanghai Comp +0.5% and the Nikkei -0.9%. Commodities were also mixed with Crude Oil -2.1%, Natural Gas +1.8%, Iron Ore & Copper both +0.9% and Gold & Silver saw no movement closing flat. A quiet local session yesterday, with only the release of the Trade Balance which missed expectations of 13.65B at 11.16B. No local data today, but out of China we are expected to see minor growth of 0.1% y/y in their CPI bringing it to 0.2%. Their PPI however is expected to drop by 4.3% y/y in May, after falling by 3.6% y/y in April. Commodity prices weakened across the board in May as China’s growth momentum continued to stall.
USD
The AUDUSD pair reignited its upward momentum overnight as a miss in US unemployment data consolidated around a 60-pip rally, bringing the rate to 0.6715 this morning on open, re-testing the 1 month high. Wall street closed in the green with the Dow Jones +0.5%, S&P 500 +0.6% and NASDAQ +1.0%. Last night we saw US weekly jobless claims were mixed with initial claims rising to 261k and printing worse than expectations of 236k while continuing claims fell to 1.757 mio to print better than expectations of 1.802 mio. US Wholesale Inventories for April were revised up to -0.1% MoM against expectations of no change at -0.2%. A quiet couple days ahead for US data with nothing being released until Tuesday week.
EUR
After a lackluster night in of European data, the AUDEUR pair opens flat this morning at 0.6227. European equites closed slightly higher with the DAX & CAC up 0.2% & 0.3% respectively. EU GDP for Q1 was revised down to -0.1% from +0.1% and below expectations of a flat result with the YoY result revised down to 1.0% from 1.3%, lower than expectations of a 1.2% increase. Final Employment Change q/q remained flat at 0.6%, no reaction from markets. Quiet night ahead with only Italian Industrial Production m/m to look forward too.
GBP
The AUDGBP made little movement in yesterday's session, opening flat this morning at 0.5345. British equities closed slightly lower with the FTSE 0.3%. Another quiet session for the brits yesterday, only seeing the RICS House Price Balance coming in better than expected at -30% vs the expected -39%. Nothing to look forward until Tuesday week with the UK employment report.
NZD
The AUDNZD consolidates its claim of the $1.10 handle, opening flat this morning at $1.1015. Manufacturing sales for New Zealand missed previous readings of -1% coming in at -2.8%. No meaningful data out for NZ until next Thursday's GDP figures.