AUD Holds Ground as Rate Decision Looms

AUD

AUD opens mixed against the majors this morning as markets await the RBA's Rate Decision later this afternoon. Asian equities opened the week under pressure with the Nikkei -1.2%, Hang Seng -2.2% and the ASX 200 -1%. There was some minor data out yesterday with ANZ Job Advertisements m/m coming in +4.4% after posting four consecutive months of negative results. Today at 2:30PM AEDT we will see the RBA release their decision on the Cash Rate which is expected to hike 0.25% from 3.60% to 3.85%. Following the decision we will have the RBA Press Conference. No data out from China today or rest of the week.

USD

AUDUSD opens flat at 0.6950 following a quiet Monday of data. A positive start to the week on Wall St. saw the Dow Jones trading +1.1%, the Nasdaq +.7%, and the S&P 500 +.6%. U.S. President Trump announced a $12bn critical minerals stockpile to reduce U.S. dependence on Chinese supplies. Donald Trump also says that the US has struck a trade deal with India which would see the tariffs on Indian goods imported into the US reduced from 25 per cent to 18 per cent immediately. Overnight Final Manufacturing PMI and ISM Manufacturing PMI both released coming in over expected at 52.4 and 52.6. Tentative today we may see JOLTS Job Openings, overnight will see ADP Non-Farm Employment Change and ISM Services PMI.

EUR

AUDEUR opens up at 0.5892, with strong equities data coming out of the Eurozone. The DAX up at 1.1% and the CAC at 0.7%. The Manufacturing PMI’s were released coming in mixed with all below the 50.0 mark except for France out of the big 4 European economies. No impactful data to be released today and all eyes looking todays Thursday night with the Main Refinancing Rate to be released expected to hold at 2.15%.
 

GBP

AUDGBP opens up flat at 0.5083, the FTSE closed up at 1.2%. A rather quiet start to the week for the Pound with the big data point being Thursday night with their rate decision. The official votes are expected to show no votes to hike, 2 votes to cut and 7 votes to hold, forecasting a hold at 3.75%.
 

NZD

AUDNZD opens slightly up at 1.1574, with no data out yesterday or today. Tomorrow New Zealand will release their employment data with there Unemployment rate expected to hold at 5.3%.