Australian Dollar:
Following a week which has been dominated by monetary policy chatter the Australian dollar’s worth when valued against the world’s reserve currency has been maintained overnight. Trading between a low of 0.7658 and a high of 0.7737 over the past 24 hours topside targets have been limited and short-lived particularly given the monetary backdrop which has generally been AUD supportive. Opening this morning marginally stronger at a rate of 0.7693 investors will be looking towards CPI numbers from China at 11:30am this morning with any stronger than expected read likely to trigger further interest on approaches towards the 77 US cents mark.
We expect a range today of 0.7650 – 0.7730
New Zealand Dollar:
The New Zealand dollar opens this morning little changed at a rate of 0.7564 when valued against its US Counterpart, still steady following the release of minutes on Wednesday from the US Federal Reserve’s March meeting. Whilst US Policy makers remain broadly divided over the exact timing of their first rate hike, US dollar strength has been maintained given weakness elsewhere and the accompanying low interest rate environment. In the absence of any local macro developments which are on offer investors will turn to today’s CPI release from China over the coming hours for direction.
We expect a range today of 0.7520 – 0.7600
Great British Pound:
In a move which simply confirmed an already dovish economic outlook The Bank of England kept monetary settings unchanged overnight, keeping the benchmark interest rate at its record low of 0.5 percent. Maintaining the record low which has now been in place since March 2009, future expectations have also been torn apart over the past month following record low levels of inflation. Keeping in the mind the UK also faces a general election next month the path to recovery remains a bumpy one. Slumping following the announcement the Great British Pound has remained under substantial pressure overnight trading down to a low 1.4683 when valued against its US Counterpart. Weaker across the board the Sterling opens lower against the Greenback (1.4707), the Aussie (1.9119) and the Kiwi (1.9441).
We expect a range today of 1.9080 – 1.9180
Majors:
European stocks received a notable boast overnight following confirmation that Greece had made a key payment to the International Monetary Fund. In a move which keeps Greece a float, talks surrounding future and ongoing bailout funds also remain open. In other European developments overnight a report from Germany showed Industrial production rose by 0.2 percent in February, a confirmation that their upward trajectory remains intact. During a session broadly dominated by Greenback strength the Euro was unable to keep pace, weaker upon this morning at a rate of 1.0658. Driving US flows overnight weekly unemployment claims rose less than expected last week with the four-week moving average hitting its lowest level since 2000. Further downplaying the significance of last week’s poor non-farm payroll read, the focus for policy makers ahead will continue to be both on inflation and more importantly wage growth improvements. In what’s shaping up as a quite end to the week the Greenback opens stronger against the Japanese Yen (1.2055).
Data releases
AUD: Home Loans m/m
NZD: No data today
JPY: No data today
GBP: Manufacturing Production m/m
EUR: No data today
USD: FOMC Lacker Speaks
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