It was a mixed night of data out of the U.S last night. U.S Consumer Confidence easily came in better than expected, the actual number was 95 with analysts’ expecting a reading of 87 .This shows that the consumer in the U.S has regained confidence in an economy that has seen the Labour market continue to show improvement which has allowed the U.S Federal Reserve to start thinking about higher interest rates sometime in mid to late 2015.
This was offset though by a weaker reading in Durable Goods orders that contracted for the second time in two months. Durable goods orders reflect orders placed with domestic manufacturers for delivery of factory goods. Adding to this copper prices rebounded overnight with rumours of a single buyer snapping up over half of the all the copper stored in LME (London Metal Exchange) warehouses.
This ‘’cornering of the market ‘’ gives control over the supply of copper to one single entity rumoured to be the Red Kite Group giving concern to traders of the potential for higher copper prices . The AUDUSD nearly broke out of the 1 month range that has kept it in check, and where support was found after nearly a 7 cent selloff starting early in September. At the time of writing prices were steady around 0.88520.When commodity prices selloff or rally, the Australian dollar tends to follow suit living up to its name as a commodity currency.
New Zealand Business confidence numbers are set to be released this morning giving a clearer picture on the state of the New Zealand economy. New Zealand has over recent times gone from being the flagship for a booming economy to showing some worrying signs of slowing down. The AUDNZD is holding steady at 1.11808.Last but definitely not least, the U.S Federal Open Market Committee meets tonight to discuss the pace at which their purchasing of MBS (Mortgage Backed Securities) or QE 3will be wound down. There has been rumours that we have not seen the back of QE as we were once led to believe.