The Australian, New Zealand and Canadian dollars extended their gains against the greenback largely due to dollar weakness as both Australian and New Zealand economic data fell short of expectations. Australian quarterly wage agreements dropped from 3.8 to 3.7 while GDP growth in New Zealand contracted by 0.3 percent in the first quarter.
Taking a look at the price action of these currencies, it is clear that the numbers seem to matter little to currency traders who are focused on dollar weakness. In the week ahead, there is a lot of economic data due for release from Australia and Canada. The most significant of which will be the Reserve Bank of Australia monetary policy meeting. Even though interest rates are expected to remain unchanged at 7.25 percent, it will be interesting to see if the central bank grows even more hawkish, moving themselves closer to raising interest rates. In addition, Australian has retail sales, service and manufacturing PMI numbers due for release while Canada will be releasing their IVEY purchasing managers index.