AUD Steadies on Risk Aversion

AUD

The AUD opens either flat or a little higher against the majors as increased geopolitical concerns in the Middle East weigh on the risk-sensitive currency, dragging recent, ongoing gains off the back of China's surprise stimulus announcement. The ASX closed -0.1% as consumer discretionary and info tech underperformed. The Hang Seng and Shenzhen climbed higher again on Wednesday, up 6.2% and 8,5% while the Nikkei slid -2.2%.  Gold opened -0.2%, Silver +1.3%, Iron ore +0.7%. Today we have the Goods Trade Balance coming out at midday, although it is not expected to move markets much. The next major Aussie Dollar piece will be the release of the RBA's recent Meeting Minutes, next Tuesday. 
 

USD

The AUDUSD pair opens flat this morning at 0.6883. The pair got to lows of 0.6862 yesterday, then hit highs of 0.6914 before settling into this morning's open. Wall Street opened marginally lower and generally traded either side of flat over the NY morning, Dow Jones closed +0.1%, NASDAQ +0.1% and S&P 500 flat. Overnight, ADP Non-Farm Employment Change showed better-than-expected payroll growth of 143,000 in September, with fairly wide job gains in leisure, hospitality, construction and education. The Non-Farm employment report tomorrow evening will be the key focus. Tonight, we'll see Unemployment Claims and the ISM Services PMI (the US services sector is expected to remain in expansion).
 

EUR

The AUDEUR pair saw highs of 0.6246 overnight with the Euro weakening given the stronger-than-expected employment figures from the US. The pair retraced a tad to open this morning at 0.6232. European equities were mixed with DAX -0.3% and CAC flat. The Euro Area had their Unemployment Rate come in as expected at 6.4%. Tonight, we'll see Producer Price Inflation (PPI) figures as well as Final Service PMIs.
 

GBP

AUDGBP got to highs of 0.5202 yesterday, although fell off and opened today at 0.5186, being flat on yesterday morning, after another day with little market moving data in Great Britain. The FTSE closed the day up slightly at +0.2%. Yesterday there was some lower tier statements coming out of the Bank of England’s Financial Policy Committee. The remainder of the week is fairly quiet apart from the Construction PMI coming out on Friday evening, which is expected at 53.1, down from the previous figure of 53.6.
 

NZD

AUDNZD opens higher this morning, climbing steadily throughout the course of yesterday to open at 1.0992. No real data came out over the past 24 hours. Today we have the ANZ Commodity prices month on month although shouldn’t produce much change as the highly correlated Australian commodity prices were released on Tuesday – meaning markets have likely already adjusted. The real movers in the AUDNZD are the Reserve Bank of New Zealand with the Official Cash Rate coming out mid-next week.