Money and Forex Blog

:: Australian Dollar: A large drop in Australian consumer sentiment as measured by the Westpac-Melbourne Institute survey pushed the Aussie dollar below the 91 cent handle in local trade yesterday. Adding to the selling pressure were fears of a slowdown in Asian growth with lower than forecast Chinese economic data seized upon by early offshore investors. After initially holding around 0.9015 the AUD/USD pushed lower again during the North American session with an unexpected widening in the U.S Trade Deficit heightening risk aversion fears that began following the Fed’s announcement the previous evening. With U.S equity markets and commodity prices trading substantially lower investors dumped the Aussie dollar during early morning exchange to see it open on its lows back at 0.8940. Today sees the release of the important Australian employment report with general market consensus forecasting the economy to have added around 20k jobs and headline unemployment to remain at an impressive 5.1%.

- We expect a range today in the AUD/USD rate of 0.8850 to 0.9000

:: Great Britain Pound: The Pound Sterling collapsed in overnight trade as investors flocked to the safety of the Greenback and Yen amidst renewed fears of risk aversion. After opening in London at around 1.5800 against the Greenback the Pound hit an overnight low of 1.5615. The market ignored better than expected employment data out of the UK preferring instead to focus on the release of the Bank of England inflation report with the central bank announcing downward revisions to CPI and signalling the possibility for the need of more emergency stimulus. The news comes on the back of a similar downbeat assessment from the U.S Federal Reserve bank on Tuesday renewing fears of a global double dip recession. This morning sees the GBP/USD exchanging at 1.5640 whilst the cross rate opens at 1.7485, up from its overnight lows around 1.7350 thanks to a large fall in the Aussie dollar.

- We expect a range today in the GBP/AUD rate of 1.7380 to 1.7500

:: New Zealand Dollar: Resistance at 0.7210 capped attempts for the Kiwi to advance higher in Asia and Europe with the NZD/USD sliding lower throughout the overnight session. The Greenback was in high demand following concerns surrounding global growth and with offshore equity markets and commodity prices falling sharply overnight “high yielders” were punished. This morning sees the NZD open on its lows at 0.7125 against the USD ahead of the release of N.Z Food Prices and Manufacturing data whilst employment data across the Tasman is also likely to have an impact on sentiment in the region, albeit a short lived one.

- We expect a range today in the https://kariera.zulutrade.com/SignUp_Live.aspx

:: Majors: Risk aversion has reappeared on the horizon over the last 24 hours with several key events changing sentiment on financial markets. In essence fears of a global double dip recession have re-emerged following the U.S Federal Reserve banks dovish statement and the Bank of England following suit last night, downgrading growth forecasts for the U.K. Add to the mix disappointing Chinese data yesterday and the result has seen EUR/JPY weaken considerably, falling almost 3% from yesterdays Asian open around 112.50 to trade as low as 109.35 overnight. Movement in the cross rate dragged EUR/USD and USD/JPY lower with the latter trading below 85 and flirting with 15 year lows around 84.75. Adding to the fears surrounding an economic slowdown was last night’s U.S Trade balance data which showed a larger than forecast 7.9 billion USD widening in the deficit to 49.9 billion. This morning sees the big dollar open well supported at 85.25 and 1.2845 against the Yen and Euro respectively.

:: Data Releases:
AUD: Jul Employment Report
NZD: Jul Food Prices & Jul Performance of Manufacturing
USD: Weekly Jobless Claims & Fedspeak
GBP: No Data Expected Today
EUR: Jun Industrial Production
JPY: Jun Industrial Production, Jul Consumer Confidence & Jun Capacity Utilisation