With the chances of a US led Syrian strike abating the usual panic driven parking spots have been exited with the US dollar now above the 100 Yen mark for the first time since late July. The risk on environment has also seen the retreat of Gold demand quite considerably and it hit lows of 1357.78 USD an ounce at the start of the US session, it’s now trading about 3.7% lower than at the peak of the height of the Syrian chemical crisis 8 days ago. The Australian dollar has also come back to the fore breaking through 93 US cents and holding above that level for the last five hours.
The Australian dollar rise was given its starting boost yesterday afternoon by well performed Industrial Production and Retail Sales data from China which both improved on last month and ahead of estimates. The Australian dollar is up over a cent this week, as is the Pound which is close to breaking past June highs when the FOMC first flagged it desire to reduce stimulus, its sitting at 1.57293 USD.
The Australia and Asian session will be a bit quieter today with only Westpac Consumer Sentiment up for release, although US President Obama will be speaking on the Syrian crisis from 11 am onwards. Early tonight the focus will be on the Pound with their unemployment rate expected to remain at 7.8%, although UK data has been on an outperformance run for some time now.
