AUD/USD Hits Fresh Yearly High on Comments From RBA Governor Stevens

The dollar attempted gains early in the Asian session as profit-taking taking emerged in commodities, Asian equities and in the currencies with an eye to month end. However, the hawkish tone of comments from RBA Stevens reversed those moves with the AUD-USD hitting fresh highs for the year around 0.8290 and commodities reversing early losses to post gains. Asian stocks were mixed but Treasury yields pushed higher after the RBA statements. Adding to the positive global growth story was news that Merrill Lynch raised its China GDP forecast to 8.7% from 8.0%. Fresh concerns over a bubble in China’s housing and stock market were noted and may have prompted the slight retreat in Shanghai stocks and RBA Stevens did warn of a housing bubble in Australia. EUR-USD, after falling to 1.4219 before the RBA comments, rallied to 1.4266 highs subsequently. USD-JPY was in a tight range of 94.93-95.18 during the session with exporter sales helping cap gains.