Declines in gold and oil prices continued to weigh on the Australian, Canadian, and the New Zealand dollar, with the USD/CAD pair rising for the third consecutive day to hold well above former resistance at 1.0450.
The release of Canadian Ivey PMI provided a brief boost to the Canadian dollar, as the index fell less than expected to 65.5 in July from a previous reading of 69.6 in June. Looking deeper into the report, the employment component of the index fell to 46.3 from 58.2, hinting that labor market conditions are slowly deteriorating as firms grapple with higher raw material costs and slowing demand. Looking ahead, Australian labor data will be the main event risk for the Aussie over the next 24 hours, and may spur downside risks for the currency as the unemployment rate is anticipated to edge higher to 4.3 percent from 4.2 percent. Likewise, the New Zealand unemployment rate for Q2 is forecasted to rise to 3.8 percent from 3.6 percent, which could add to speculation that the RBNZ will cut rates again at their next policy meeting. [B]My fundamental bias for the commodity dollars overnight: bearish.[/B]