Welcome to our daily market update where we help keep you informed on the latest happenings in the world of FX and show you what this means for the Mighty Aussie Dollar.
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Key Data Being Released Today Friday the 31st of December 2021
- Today
- CNY Trade Balances (Dec) (Forecast 74.50B, Previous 71.72B)
- CNY Exports (YoY) (Dec) (Forecast 20.0%, Previous 22.0%)
- CNY Imports (YoY) (Dec) (Forecast 26.3%, Previous 31.7%)
- AUD Home Loans (MoM)
- Overnight
- USD Retail Sales (Dec) (Forecast -0.1%, Previous 0.3%)
- USD Export Price Index (Dec) (Forecast 0.3%, Previous 1.0%)
- USD Import Price Index (Dec) (Forecast 0.3%, Previous 0.7%)
- USD Michigan Consumer Expectations (Jan) (Forecast 66.5, Previous 68.3)
- USD Industrial Production (Dec) (Forecast 0.3%, Previous 0.5%)
- EUR Trade Balance (Nov) (Forecast 7.6B, Previous 3.6B)
- GBP GDP (MoM) (Previous 0.1%)
- GBP Trade Balance (Nov) (Forecast -14.20B, Previous -13.93B)
The Aussie Dollar – Fundamentals
Major currencies were mixed against the US dollar in European and US trade. The Aussie dollar fell from highs near US73.13 cents to lows near US72.74 cents and was near US72.80 cents at the US close.
The Euro rose from lows near US$1.1438 to highs near US$1.1478 and was near US$1.1455 at the US close.
In testimony before the US Senate Banking Committee, US Federal Reserve Governor Lael Brainard said the US central bank could raise interest rates as early as March. Dr. Brainard said, “The committee has projected several hikes over the course of the year.”
The performance of the Aussie overnight, having trailed off from highs not seen since November, could be seen as correlation to US markets where Equities sold off into the close. The Tech sector continued to wear the brunt of the selling, Microsoft (-4.2%), Amazon (-2.4%) and Apple (-1.9%) weighed on the Nasdaq index. The Dow, which had been in the green in the later part of the day, also closed lower.
In US economic data, the producer price index (PPI) lifted 0.2% in December to be up by a near-record 9.7% on the year (survey: +9.8%). The core measure (ex-food and energy) rose 0.5% to be up by a record 8.3% on a year ago (survey: +8%). Initial jobless claims rose by 23,000 to 230,000 in the past week (survey: 200,000).
AUD/USD Daily Chart
DXY (USD INDEX) Daily
Major Global Markets
- Currencies
- AUD/USD – At the time of writing this report trades at 0.7279
- AUD/JPY – At the time of writing this report trades at 83.07
- AUD/CNH – At the time of writing this report trades at 4.6318
- DXY (US Dollar Index) – At the time of writing this report trades 94.870
- AUD/EUR – At the time of writing this report trades 0.6353
- AUD/USD – 3M ATM Vol at 8.1%
- Bonds
- US 10 year (%) 1.6953, -0.03
- Aust 10 year (%) 1.81, -0.05
- Stocks
- S&P 500 closed at 4659.03, -1.4%
- NASDAQ closed at 14806.81, -2.5%
- ASX 200 closed at 7474.40
- Commodities
- Spot Iron Ore ($US/t) – 127.95, -2.8%
- Gold futures ($US/oz) – 1821.40, -0.3%
- Oil Brent ($US/b) – 81.75, -0.2%