AUD Holds Ground After Peace Proposal Rejected

AUD

The Aussie Dollar opens slightly up across the majors this morning, despite shaky US-Iran peace talks and escalated tensions in the greater region ahead of Trumps meetings in China end of week. Asian equities finished the week lower with the Nikkei -0.2%, Hang Seng -0.9% and the ASX 200 -1.5%. No local data today, however, Chinese Inflation data is set to release today at 11:30am off the back of their public holidays last week. Current forecasts show CPI y/y at 0.9% and PPI y/y at 1.7%. This week looks to be quiet on the economic calendar with no major data releases for China, Japan or Australia. Looking ahead, the next major release for Australia will be our Employment stats next Thursday and the results of Trump and Xi’s meeting later this week.

USD

AUDUSD opened in the green at 0.7234, still maintaining gains from last week despite reports earlier this morning of another failed peace proposal in the Middle East. A steady session on Wall St. to round out the week saw the Nasdaq close +1.7%, the S&P 500 +.8%, and the Dow Jones unchanged. U.S.10-year yields fell 3bps to 3.39% while Brent Crude was steady at just over $100 a barrel. Late Friday evening the monthly US employment report released and was mixed, with headline employment increasing by 115k, down from 185k though well above expectations of +65k. The unemployment rate was steady at 4.3% as expected. Average hourly earnings data was soft at +0.2% MoM and +3.6% YoY, weaker than expectations of +0.3% and +3.8% respectively. Looking ahead, the US have Cleveland Fed Inflation Expectations (tentative) today. Tomorrow, US inflation, Core CPI m/m CPI m/m and CPI y/y expected at 0.3%, 0.6% and 3.7% respectively. 

EUR

AUDEUR opens a touch higher at 0.6149, flirting with the 0.6150 barrier again. European equities closed in the red, with both down over a percent at -1.3% for the DAX and -1.1% for the CAC. A quiet day data wise today, but tomorrow will see a flurry of minor economic data out of the Eurozone with Italian Industrial Production m/m, German ZEW Economic Sentiment and ZEW Economic Sentiment expected at 0.2% -19.1 and -21.6 respectively. 

GBP

AUDGBP opens slightly up, sitting comfortably above 53c at 0.5322 to start the week. The FTSE closed in the red at -0.4%. A quiet day data wise for the Sterling, with all attention on Thursdays GDP m/m expected at -0.2% from 0.5% with Prelim GDP q/q to follow expected at 0.6%. 

NZD

AUDNZD opens in the green this morning to open at 1.2160. No major data planned for the Kiwi this week with the next major data point being their Cash Rate decision on the 27th of this month.