Australian Dollar:
Upbeat Chinese manufacturing data bolstered the AUD yesterday as reports painted an encouraging picture for the economic health of Australia’s largest trading partner. Several announcements yesterday witnessed Chinese manufacturing PMI numbers print right on expectation, and the Australian dollar reacted positively to this by reaching overnight highs of AUD/USD 0.7084, after touching previous intraday lows of 0.6998. The AUD/USD opens this morning comfortably above the 70 cent handle at 0.7025. Local retails sales figures scheduled today will be at the forefront of investors’ minds.
We expect a range today of AUD/USD 0.6980 – 0.7060
New Zealand Dollar:
The NZ Dollar starts virtually unchanged today as an absence of local data left the Kiwi to take direction from overseas economic announcements. The local currency traded sideways for the most part of yesterday’s trade session and opens this morning buying 63.93 US cents. With commodity price data being printed later in the day, this release will tend to have a muted effect as highly correlated Australian commodity prices are released a few days earlier. The NZD is expected to remain in a familiar range moving into the weekend.
Great British Pound:
The Pound Sterling appears unmoved today against its US counterpart as manufacturing data results failed to inspire any GBP price driving action. Results printed a shade above forecasts for local manufacturing PMI, and even with rising UK labour costs during Q2 2015 pointing to the Bank of England possibly moving nearer to a rate hike, the GBP still remained range bound yesterday. The GBP/USD opens at higher at 1.5129, and lower at 2.1513 and 2.3632 against its Aussie and Kiwi counterparts.
We expect a range today of GBP/AUD 2.1480 – 2.1560
Majors:
The EUR/USD has gained support overnight as weak manufacturing data released from the United States brought the US economic recovery into question. An array of manufacturing PMI figures were released from the Eurozone which came in mostly on forecast, however this did not seem to have too much bearing in the currency value as high levels of debt and sluggish growth in the region remain the key themes on investors’ minds. Furthermore US manufacturing PMI data printed much lower than expectations, however upcoming today all attention will be on wage and unemployment data being released at night. The EUR/USD opens at 1.1192
Data releases:
AUD: Retails Sales m/m
CNY: Bank Holiday
EUR: Spanish Unemployment Change, PPI m/m
GBP: Construction PMI
JPY: Household Spending y/y, Unemployment Rate, Monetary Base y/y
NZD: ANZ Commodity Prices m/m
USD: Average Hourly Earnings m/m, Non-Farm Employment Change, Unemployment Rate, Factory Orders m/m, FOMC Member Fischer Speaks