The Australian, New Zealand and Canadian dollars remained weak on Thursday as data from all of the regions were abysmal. In Australia, retail sales unexpectedly slumped 1 percent in the month of June and 0.6 percent in Q2, which was actually the worst reading since Q3 2000.
In New Zealand, business confidence fell for the first time in four months in July to -43.2 from -38.7, giving the RBNZ even more reason to consider cutting rates again this year after reducing the official cash rate last week to 8.00 percent. In Canada, GDP surprisingly slipped 0.1 percent in May due primarily to a slowing in natural gas and crude oil production. Overall, the Australian, New Zealand, and Canadian dollars could be in trouble in coming months, as many of these regions depend on export demand for growth and a global economic slowdown threatens to lead demand for commodities to drop.