RBA leaves cash rate unchanged at 2.0%
Today’s Economic Data:
- NZD NZIER Business confidence -14 vs. 5 previously
- Australia trade balance -3.10bn vs. -2.48bn
- RBA leaves cash rate unchanged at 2.0%
- German factory orders m/m -1.8% vs. 0.5%
- UK Halifax HPI m/m -0.9% vs. 0.1%
- Swiss CPI m/m 0.1% vs. 0.1%
- Eurozone retail PMI 51.9 vs. 51.4 previously
- Canada trade balance -2.53bn vs. -1.1bn
- US trade balance -48.3bn vs. -47.6bn
Later:
- Canada Ivey PMI
- US IBD/TIPP Economic optimism
- ECB Mario Draghi Speech
The equity markets continued to trail higher for a second day of the week. The Nikkei 225 was up 1.0% while the Shanghai Composite gained 0.5% for the day. The Hang Seng was down -0.10%. Early Asian trading session saw the release of the NZIER business confidence for New Zealand which fell to -14 from 5 previously. The Kiwi remained flat for the day ahead of the Global dairy trade data due for release later in the evening.
The Australian dollar remained well bid gaining 0.43% at the time of writing. The RBA’s monetary policy saw the rates unchanged at 2.0%, while the RBA’s tone in the statement remained broadly neutral. The Aussie gained across the board and is now up 0.89% for this week with the Kiwi trailing in at a close second of 0.76%. The rise of the commodity risk currencies has been the major theme this week since the disappointing jobs data last Friday and weak services and non-manufacturing PMI data yesterday saw the US Dollar trim its gains.
The Japanese Yen was the weakest currency so far this week, losing -0.39% in what seems to be a risk on sentiment on the back of a weaker dollar. USDJPY remained flat for the day but is modestly down -0.10% for the day after the currency failed to hold on to the gains near the daily high of 120.5
The European session saw the equity markets opening strong with the German DAX up 0.35% while the FTSE100 gained 0.19% for the day. Data from Europe saw German factory orders declining -1.8% for the month against estimates of a 0.5% increase. The decline in the factory orders was attributed to a slowdown from China. The Euro managed to post some modest gains, rising 0.29% for the day with the currency trailing near 1.1226 at the time of writing.
The British Pound posted some modest gains, up 0.15% against the Greenback but lack of any major data has kept the GBP subdued ahead of the BoE’s monetary policy meeting due this Thursday.
The US trading session saw the release of the trade balance data from US and Canada. US trade balance widened to $48.3 billion in August, more than the expected 47.4 billion, while Canada’s trade balance grew 2.53 more than the expected 1.1 billion. The Canadian dollar was more subdued today with the USDCAD attempting to recover some of the declines from earlier this week.
Later in the evening, the Canadian Ivey PMI data is due for release with expectations that the Ivey PMI declined to 54.1 from 58.0 last month.
