AUD/USD - Last Week
The Australian Dollar has taken advantage of some economic data and comments from the US Federal Reserve last week and gained almost 1% overnight on Wednesday last week and pushed its way back to approx. 0.7173 on Thursday morning.
US retail sales were reported slightly lower than expected, however it seemed the comments around inflation which is expected to decline slightly due to bottleneck issues and supply constraints saw the market sell off the USD this morning and see the AUD pick up a little.
The over arching concern around the Omicron variant was also on the notes and as always, its the uncertainty which moves the markets more than anything else.
The AUD/USD has been able to drag itself away from the December 6th low of 0.6992, and gain up to 2.58% since then to push back towards a more reasonable level close to 0.72c.
The end of the week seen the AUD sell off heavily on Friday so close out the week just 0.64% down from the open of 0.7159 to finish the week at 0.7123.
THIS WEEK The Australian Dollar will have the next three days to see if it can take another run up at the 0.72c range as we see a few key data releases early in the week before the Xmas break. Monday starts with The PBoC Interest Rate Decision is announced by the People's Bank of China and we still see the AUD move off high tier Chinese data, so this will be a key release. Tuesday will see the latest RBA minutes released and with the expectation of no moves in rates anytime soon, and any mentioned of Covid related slowdowns, etc we may see some downward pressure on the AUD. These are the two main events to look out for this week before things should slow down until the New Year, news will continue to be released and we feel driven by the Omicron news and how this is portrayed to affect each country and the economic slowdowns that could come with it.
Current AUD Rates
AUD/USD - 0.7123
AUD/EUR - 0.6348
AUD/GBP - 0.5381
AUD/NZD - 1.0567
AUD/CAD - 0.9179
Other noteworthy rates
EUR/USD - 1.1236
GBP/AUD - 1.8566
GBP/NZD - 1.9629
NZD/AUD - 0.9460
**Opening rates after the weekend.
Comments