Australian Dollar
Expected Range 0.7450 – 0.7600
The Australian Dollar finds itself buying 75.45 US cents after two thin trading days on Friday and on Monday due to the observance of Easter by some markets including Australia. The USD was given a bit of support toward the end of last week with a number of US Federal Reserve officials signalling that interest rate rises were not far away. The statement released with the Federal Reserve’s decision to keep rates on hold was interpreted by the market as Dovish however the comments by officials in contract have been quite Hawkish with the market not really sure how to react. Looking forward to the week ahead there are no local major data releases this week so the market will be looking towards commodity prices and Chinese Manufacturing data being released on Friday.
New Zealand Dollar
Expected Range 0.6680 – 0.6780
The NZD has performed strongly and is up over 50 points from where it opened. During a subdued session during local time the NZD was able to make some ground during Wall Street trade after softer than expected data out of the US with the Core PCE Price Index and Personal Spending data both missing their marks. With limited data coming out this week locally the main focus will be on overseas markets and commodity prices as markets turn back on after the extended Easter Break.
Great British Pound
Expected Range 1.8750 – 1.8950
A fairly quiet weekend for the GBP which was closed for trade on Friday and Monday. It did perform well yesterday of the back of soft US data to find itself opening this morning at 1.4251 against the USD after intraday lows of 1.4121. With the absence of any fresh concerns over the Brexit Vote in June the GBP has managed to find some air also opening this morning higher against the AUD (1.8884) and the NZD (2.1179).
Majors
Expected Range N/A
The US market was one of the few key markets that was open for business yesterday and lost ground against most of the major currencies after soft data releases through the day. The Core PCE Price Index and Personal spending both missed market expectations and the Goods Trade balance came in slight worse than expectations. The main shining light for the US was an increase in the Pending Home Sales m/m came in with a positive 3.5% against market expectations of 1.2%. The Federal Reserve Chair Yellen will speak tonight with the market looking to see if she continues the Hawkish tone around the interest rate decisions that her colleagues have taken. In Japan we have some data being released today with Household Spending, Unemployment Rate and Retail Sales data out this morning.