AUD Holding Ground

PLEASE NOTE
We will remain open on all days except for public holidays.
We wish our clients an enjoyable festive season and best wishes for the year ahead.

AUD

The Aussie Dollar opens either flat or a tad higher against majors as markets stay monitoring global economic risk sentiment, with minimal economic data over heading into the end of 2024. The ASX finished strongly +1.7% as financials and consumer discretionary lead gains. Asian equities started the week upbeat, Nikkei +1.2%, Hang Seng +0.8%, and Shenzhen +0.2%. The biggest movers in commodities were Natural Gas +3.7% and Cotton +2.2%, other commodities showed virtually no movements in their prices. Locally, we had no data out yesterday, although today we have the RBA Monetary Policy Meeting Minutes at 11:30. What is released will carry great weight as markets try to gauge what the RBA’s next move is in its struggle between managing inflation and economic growth as futures markets are now pricing in the RBA’s first rate cut for April.
 

USD

AUDUSD opens flat at 0.6247 after falling to lows of 0.6219 in the early hours, then slowly climbing back up after some interesting data came out of the US, with Durable Goods Orders printing at -1.1% against forecasts of 0.3%. We also saw CB Consumer Confidence miss forecasts of 112.9, coming out at 104.7. The Conference Board expressed that Consumers felt more positive about the job market, aligning with recent employment figures, but their confidence in the overall business climate declined. In equities another positive session on Wall St. saw the Nasdaq trading +0.6%, the S&P 500 +0.3%, and the Dow Jones unchanged late in the North American session. Tonight, we'll see the Richmond Manufacturing Index. Tomorrow and Thursday will be a Bank Holiday for the US.
 

EUR

The AUDEUR rate opens at 0.6004, slightly up from yesterday's open. European equities saw DAX - 0.2% and CAC flat. Yesterday we saw German Import Prices come in at 0.9%, better than expectations of 0.5%. There is no data out for the remainder of the week. Tomorrow and Thursday will be a Bank Holiday.
 

GBP

The AUDGBP opens at 0.4978, up about 12 pips from yesterday. Yesterday we had the UK’s Current Account come in at -18.1B, about 5B higher than forecasts. They also had their quarterly Final GDP come in at 0.0%, just missing expectations of 0.1%. The FTSE was up 0.2%. Looking forward we have some minor data out on Friday as the BOE has their quarterly bulletin. The UK also has their Bank Holidays on Wednesday and Thursday.
 

NZD

AUDNZD opens flat at 1.1059 after it fell to lows of 1.1041 in the earlier hours of the morning. No Kwi data this week.