OPENING COMMENT
We have seen some profit taking in Asia thus far, although the moves have been very mild. The Australian Dollar continues to outperform against all major currencies, with the exception of the buck on Friday. The relative strength in the commodity currency has been impressive and shows no signs of let up even after breaking psychological barriers by 0.9000. The RBA rate hike and subsequent employment data this week have been the primary catalysts behind the antipodean moves. Even some reserved comments from Treasury Chief Henry on Friday have failed to weigh on the single currency. The buying back of the USD over the past few hours has been attributed to comments from Fed Chief Bernanke who alluded to Fed tightening. Meanwhile, US Treasury Summers has been on the wires reaffirming the US commitment to a strong USD policy. Looking ahead, German CPI (-0.4% expected) is due at 6:00GMT, along with German current account (8.8B expected) and trade (12B expected). UK data then takes center stage at 8:30GMT with producer prices (-0.8% expected) and the trade balance (-6300 expected).
Written by Joel Kruger, Technical Currency Strategist for DailyFX.com
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