Currency markets ended up firing up once the quieter Asian session came to an end with the US dollar coming back to the fore by the close on the US session. The movement wasn’t data driven with the Australian dollar sliding half a cent to trade to lows of 95.56 US cents. The Euro and Pound lost similar ground to the Greenback but did rebound monetarily and the losses that the Aussie suffered came to an end with US economic data releases last night. Industrial production data was solid at 0.6%, slightly ahead of expectations but Pending Home Sales unexpectedly contracted 5.6% halting US dollar strength.
The Gold price was largely unaffected by the movements of the other major pairs and it did peak at 1361 USD an ounce overnight but it did settle back near yesterday’s open at 1352 USD as the Asian session began this morning. The stability in its performance overnight was surprising as it looks to have settled after a bullish last 6 days of trade.
Our local session has seen RBA Governor Stevens speaking today in Sydney leading into the next Tuesday’s rates decision. The Aussie is a full cent higher versus the Greenback following the last RBA meeting and Stevens did reference that the Aussie is overbought at current levels in the speech transcript. The Yen which has been steady versus the US dollar but gaining versus the Aussie will come into focus with unemployment rate up this morning with it expected to drop to 4% after last month surprise jump higher.
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
