Risk assets had a confident 24 hours to start this week concerns for Syria abate and the markets focus back on the data for this week. The Australian dollar continued on from yesterday rise of the back of strong building approvals and the firmness of the Chinese HSBC Final Manufacturing PMI.
The Aussie managed to break through the 90 US cent market briefly on three occasions through trade overnight, trading just at 89.91 US cents moments ago. The risk on session was also franked by the US dollar’s gains against the Yen, even with the US markets a little quitter with Labor day holiday the Greenback surged more than 130 pips to be trading at 99.52 Yen.
Manufacturing PMI was a major driver for the Euro and Pound through yesterday evening as Spanish, Italian and Final European data all outperformed market estimates and where in expansionary phases. This was true also for the UK which had Manufacturing PMI hit 57.2, now 7 straight month of rising data. The Euro got a solid bounce up to high of 1.3226 USD before it eased later in the US Session. The Pound traded much the same initially up to 1.5593 USD before it also eased back about half a cent.
Today’s local session is jam packed with markets sensitive AUD releases firstly with Retails sales which is expected to increase 0.4% month on and month and the Current account which median expectations are for it to remain as is. Those two releases are at 11.30am and then the wait till the afternoon’s rates decisions to see if there is any suggestion the cutting cycle is coming to an end.
Joel Murphy
www.pepperstone.com Joel Murphy is a currency analyst and market commentator for Forex Broker Pepperstone and he regularly features on Sky Business News Australia. He has worked in both retail and institutional Forex for last 8 years and completed a Bachelor of Commerce and a Bachelor of Arts from Monash University
