AUD Strengthens Ahead of Retail Sales Figures

AUD

The Aussie Dollar opens higher against most majors after improvements in global risk sentiment, despite a quiet session in financial markets yesterday, including no local or Chinese data. We saw the ASX +0.8% off the back of strong real estate and communication sectors, Hang Seng gaining +1.2%, Shanghai Comp +1.1% and Nikkei +0.7%. The commodities desk saw a mixed day with Crude Oil +1.1%, Natural gas -4.0%, Gold -0.2%, Silver -0.6% and Iron Ore +0.3%. A quiet day ahead with Australian Retail Sales m/m as the only release of note domestically, expected to pick up by +0.7% from last month to print at +0.3%. The Retail Sales figure, paired with tomorrow's Consumer Price Inflation release, will be key for the RBA in determining future monetary policy.
 

USD

AUDUSD opens higher at 0.6656 after global risk sentiment saw slight improvements. Wall Street was closed for the Memorial Day Holiday, also meaning no further data out of the US yesterday. Today, we have several FOMC Members speaking on the wire, including voting member Mester at 3pm in a panel discussion at the Bank of Japan. Furthermore, at midnight we'll see the Conference Board Consumer Confidence, expected to inch slightly higher from previous to print at 96.0. This figure will give insight into financial confidence among US households, being a leading indicator of consumer spending, which accounts for the majority of overall economic activity.
 

EUR

AUDEUR opens higher at 0.6129 after the French ECB Governor Villeroy spoke on the wire yesterday suggesting a July cut could follow straight after June. Yesterday, we also had Germany’s IFO Business Assessment, Current Assessment, and Expectations missing forecasts on all measures, printing at 89.3 from an expected 90.4. European equities had a slightly green day, with the CAC and DAX both pushing +0.1%. Looking forward we have a tentative release of Germany’s inflation figures tomorrow, with German Prelim CPI m/m expected to ease to 0.2% from a previous 0.5%.
 

GBP

AUDGBP opens a little higher at 0.5211 with a UK Bank holiday yesterday, UK equities closed and no further data releases. Tonight, we’ll have low-tier figures out for their retail and wholesale sales, with CBI Realised Sales expected to decrease to -24 from a previous -44. Looking onwards, this week we’ll have their housing figures out, with Nationwide HPI m/m expected to increase 0.5% to print at +0.1% to show a slight increase in housing prices, also with Mortgage Approvals expected to remain flat at 62K. 
 

NZD

AUDNZD opens flat at 1.0819 with no data out yesterday. Looking forward, we have nothing out from NZ until tomorrow, where the ANZ Business Confidence will be out. More notably will be the NZ Annual Budget release on Friday, especially after a more hawkish-than-expected tone from the RBNZ last week, where the central bank gave the cold shoulder to any talks of potential interest rate cuts.