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
| Australia – | Retail Sales (MoM) (Jul) | ||||
| China – | Chinese Industrial profit (YoY) (Jul) | ||||
Macro Report
In the wake of Chair Jerome Powell’s Jackson Hole speech reinforcing the Fed’s hawkish tilt, the Aussie dollar and other major currencies took a tumble. Powell expressed that the Fed would employ forceful action to fight inflation and maintain its current pace of rate hikes.
Following Powell’s remarks which signalled against any indications of loosening monetary policy, Treasury yields lowered, and gold erased its gains for the week. The US Dollar Index (DXY) rallied as a result; at the time of writing, the dollar index is up 0.33% and is trading at the 109.16 level.
Today’s retail sales for Australia are forecasted to show a 0.3% month-over-month increase in July, versus a prior month print of 0.2%. Release of this data could potentially offer a shift in sentiment and act favourably for the Aussie dollar.
Looking ahead this week, market participants are anticipating the US non-farm payrolls report for August. If employment figures project a strong labour market, this may reinforce the Fed’s tightening bets. Elsewhere, China’s manufacturing PMI is due on Wednesday and is expected to indicate ongoing economic contraction. Meanwhile, in the Eurozone, inflation data will be closely watched. With ECB’s CPI target at 2% and data expected to show annual inflation accelerate to 9.0%, this will likely pressure officials and make a case for a larger rate hike in the following month.
AUD/USD Daily Chart
DXY (USD INDEX) Daily Chart
Major Global Markets
| Currencies | Level | Change (%) |
| AUD/USD | 0.6865 | -0.46 |
| AUD/JPY | 94.8350 | -0.05 |
| AUD/CNH | 4.7374 | -0.26 |
| DXY | 109.1600 | 0.33 |
| Rates | Yield (%) | Change |
| US 10 Year | 3.04 | 0.005 |
| Aus 10 Year | 3.59 | -0.088 |
| Equities | Level | Change (%) |
| S&P 500 | 4,057.66 | -3.37 |
| NASDAQ | 12,141.71 | -3.94 |
| ASX 200 | 7,104.06 | 0.79 |
| Commodities | Level | Change (%) |
| Iron Ore | 108.50 | 1.88 |
| Gold | 1747.90 | -0.11 |
| Brent Crude oil | 100.57 | -0.42 |