In the lead up to the weekend the AUD remained rather steady against the majors. It still remains around a 2014 high against the Euro and the USD going into this week and is around the average trading level for the past 6 months against the NZD and GBP.
The Canadian economy reported on their inflation levels late Friday night with the economic forecast being a slight increase to the annualised figure from 2.0% to 2.1%. The result was actually a beat, with the CPI figure increasing to 2.3%. Another positive sign for the CAD was that the Retail Sales figures for the month of April increase from 0.1% growth to 1.1%, half a percent higher than the targeted projection. This allowed the ‘Loonie’ to gain back some ground against the ‘Aussie’ and edge towards parity.
Chinese Manufacturing PMI for June will be released today at 11:45am AEST. The previous month was a slight contraction to this sector; however an expansion figure above 50 should see the Australian Dollar start the week strong. There is no domestic data of significance out of Australia today however the AUD will look for support tomorrow with the Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence Index being released.
German and Euro-Zone PMI data dominate the focus of economic attention this evening. Despite positive figures being expected, it is unlikely that it will cause any genuine shift to the current de-valuing of the Euro due to the monetary policy procedures being implemented by the ECB. The US has some medium-tier data out this evening relating to Consumer Confidence and New Home Sales.
In what appears to be a relatively quiet week for domestic data being released out of Australia, the AUD is likely to move in relation to how strong or weak the international data is from the various economies globally.