AUD Hits 1-Year Lows Against Greenback

AUD

The Aussie dollar is down against all majors overnight after yesterday's domestic inflation print hinted at the RBA holding rates at 4.1% next Tuesday. The headline figure was a 5.2% rise in the year to August - up from 4.9% in July, and a 0.8% month on month increase owing largely to the rise in global energy prices. Aussie-linked commodities also saw a hit, mainly due to USD strength. Gold and Silver both seeing a -1.3% decrease, and SGX Iron -0.6%, and CMX Copper -0.2%. The ASX gave up -0.1%. Today at 11:30, Australian Retail Sales m/m is printing, currently expecting a 0.3% increase and representing the final piece of the puzzle ahead of Tuesday's RBA interest rate decision.

USD

The US dollar continues to surge, pushing the AUDUSD down a further 0.6% to 0.6350. Touching a low of 0.6331 overnight. The recent USD strength is off the back of rising crude oil prices, decreasing bond prices and increasing bond yields, with the US 10-year bond yield hitting 4.61%, a new high since 2007, and the yield on the 2-year bond jumping 7 basis points to 5.14%. While these is good for US dollar strength, it is not necessarily a great sign of the US economy, with decreasing bond prices, it is estimated that US banks are sitting on an increasing number of unrealized losses. Durable Goods Orders m/m printed last night, with both figures coming up above expectation, Core coming in at 0.4%, vs 0.2% expected and the headline coming in at 0.2%, vs -0.5% expectation. Final GDP q/q is released tonight, expecting a figure of +2.1%, this release will be followed by Unemployment claims, expecting to see a slight increase from the previous figure of 201k to 214k.

EUR

The AUDEUR opens flat at 0.6043 this morning, reaching highs of 0.6071 in the early hours. Yesterday German GfK Consumer Climate came in below expectation, at -26.5, vs -25.8 expected. Tonight, two large pieces of data will be released: German Prelim CPI m/m, expected at 0.3%, and Spanish Flash CPI y/y, expected at 3.5%. The ECB Economic Bulletin will also be released later, which is the statistical data the ECB governing Board evaluated in the latest interest rate decision.

GBP

A 0.5% loss overnight for the AUDGBP pair, opening up at 0.5226. The recent general trend for the AUDGBP has been upward, gaining 4.24% over the past month. No data out yesterday or today the UK, but a flurry of activity is due tomorrow, with 6 major economic indicators to print on Friday evening.

NZD

The Australian dollar continues its downward trend against the NZD, falling a further 0.3% overnight. In the past week this pair has seen a 1.5% drop. Today at 10am (EST) ANZ business confidence for New Zealand will print.