Aussie dollar trades below US$0.67
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Daily Currency Update
The Australian dollar is weaker this morning when valued against the Greenback currently trading at US$0.6773 at the time of writing. The Australian dollar dropped during the North American session after September’s jobs report in the United States (US), suggesting that the Federal Reserve (Fed) would not cut rates by 50 basis points (bps) at the November meeting. Aside from this, Australia’s data witnessed a solid Retail Sales report, and the Balance of Trade in August printed a surplus. Although those conditions could prevent the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) from cutting rates, business activity in the manufacturing sector, via the Judo Bank Manufacturing PMI, contracted for eight straight months. There are no scheduled releases today on the bank holiday. Looking ahead to this week on Tuesday we will see the release of both the Westpac Consumer Sentiment and NAB Business Confidence. The RBA will also release the latest Monetary Policy Meeting Minutes a detailed record of the RBA board's most recent meeting, providing in-depth insights into the economic conditions that influenced their decision on where to set interest rates.Key Movers
The US Dollar Index (DXY) climbed into a fifth consecutive bullish day on Friday, driven higher by better-than-expected US Nonfarm Payrolls figures. American employers added 254,000 jobs last month in the penultimate jobs report before the US election, defying fears of a slowdown in the labour market. Job creation unexpectedly accelerated in September, while the headline unemployment rate slipped to 4.1% from 4.2% in August. Economists had forecast a non-farm payrolls reading of around 132,500 for September, after a cooler summer of employment growth. Annual wage growth also firmed up in September, rising 4.0% YoY from the previous 3.9%. Investors had expected September’s Average Hourly Earnings growth to ease back to 3.8%. With wages and net jobs additions blowing well past expectations across the board, rate market expectations of a higher pace of rate cuts have taken a huge hit to round out a middling-at-best trading week.Stocks advanced on Friday after an expectation-defying jobs report gave investors confidence in the health of the economy. The S&P 500 rose 0.9% to 5,751.07, while the Nasdaq Composite jumped 1.22% to 18,137.85. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 341.16 points, or 0.81%, to notch an all-time closing high of 42,352.75. The S&P 500 finished up 0.22% on the week, while the Dow inched higher by 0.09%. The Nasdaq added 0.1% for the week, a major turnaround given the tech-heavy index came into Friday’s session down more than 1%. The next week will bring closely watched inflation data and minutes from the Federal Reserve’s September policy meeting. A handful of major corporate earnings reports are also due.
Expected Ranges
- AUD/USD: 0.6700 - 0.6900 ▼
- AUD/EUR: 0.6050 - 0.6250 ▼
- GBP/AUD: 1.9100 - 1.9300 ▲
- AUD/NZD: 1.0800 - 1.1000 ▲
- AUD/CAD: 0.9050 - 0.9250 ▼