The Australian, New Zealand and Canadian dollars are all significantly weaker today due to softer economic data and a sharp sell-off in gold prices.
Other than the yellow metal becoming extremely overbought, there was no major behind today’s big move. Consumers are expecting less inflationary pressures in the month of November and even though weekly wages grew at a slower monthly rate in August, the annualized pace of growth increased. Meanwhile Canada is beginning to feel the strain of a stronger currency. Yesterday they reported weaker leading indicators and today they reported weaker manufacturing shipments. Only New Zealand has been reporting upside surprises in their economic data with business PMI increasing from 55.1 to 56.9.