The AUD has had a relatively stable start to the week, being quite range bound with only minor trading movements across the currency board.
Yesterday evening the US reported on Consumer Confidence levels and Market Services PMI which were both slightly above expectations, however the Greenback remained unchanged. The most significant economic event out of the US this week will occur tomorrow with the release their annualised GDP figure. This growth indicator has been quite low recently and it is actually expected to decrease on this occasion from 0.1% to -0.5%. Even a small positive figure Thursday evening should give strength to Greenback, whilst a negative figure is likely to drive the US Dollar down against the AUD.
Today the Australian economy reports on the amount of construction work done in the first quarter of 2014, in terms of a percentage figure. It is anticipated to come in at -1.0% and is generally not a major market mover, however, a large deviation to either side of this negative figure is likely to momentarily push the AUD in one direction or another.
This afternoon we could see some strength in the Swiss Franc as their GDP figure is expected to show an increase. German employment data will determine the initial movements of the Euro tonight and the Euro-Zone Economic and Consumer Confidence figures that follow will either assist or hinder the currency, depending on the results. They are expected to fall in line with previous months results which may just continue the recent trend of a weakening Euro.
Canada had solid strength to its currency last week due to their inflation rate increasing from 1.5% to 2.0% as expected. The CAD has been edging closer to parity against the AUD for the past few days and it will look to strengthen further towards the end of this week when their GDP figures are announced.
With most of the major economies having some form of high level economic release left to announce this week, the direction that the Aussie moves is likely to be because of either strong or weak data releases from the different international economies rather than resulting from domestic economic indicators.