The Australian, New Zealand and Canadian dollars are moving in unison once again, with each of these currencies up strongly against the dollar.
This can most likely attributed to dollar weakness than commodity currency strength since economic data out of the region wasn?t incredibly impressive. Skilled vacancies in Australia dropped by 1.1 percent in the month of April, which was less than the -2.2 percent drop reported the prior month. Westpac leading indicators increased by a modest 0.2 percent in March, compared to a 0.9 percent in the month of February which suggests that tonight?s Conference board numbers could also be softer than expected. Meanwhile both New Zealand Q2 inflation expectations and Canadian leading indicators remained unchanged. Looking ahead, the New Zealand trade balance is due for release and we expect the strength of the Kiwi to take a big bite out of exports.