Australia’s officials released on Wednesday the latest retail sales figures, which came in line with expectations at 0.4% mom (month-on-month). The numbers acted as a support for the AUD/USD trend over the course of the last couple of days. Also, the report is a key figure in RBA’s (Reserve Bank of Australia) decision process in prospect of December’s meeting. Although the bank left the interest rates on stand-by for the current period, there was a dovish hint in the latest released statement with which Stevens maintained a path open for further easing, adding that par has raised in which regards the economic improvement indicators in further analyses. As a result, we see a cautious bullish market for the Aussie, investors keeping their eyes on China’s performance and Fed rate hike prospects (most probable in December).
Also on Wednesday, US’s ADP (Automatic Data Processing) reported an additional 182k jobs for the private sector in the month of October versus a 180K expected growth.
According to the same report, the US trade has gone down to $40.8 billion in September, analysts predicting only a decrease until $41.10 billion. ISM’s (Institute of Supply Management) services or non-manufacturing PMI (Purchasing Managers Index) went up to 59.2 for October versus 56.9 in September, beating the estimated drop to 56.5 entirely. The employment gauge advanced to 59.2, marking the second highest reading since August, 2005. By far, these readings counter the drop in the manufacturing PMI from last week.
Yesterday came with an increasing selling interest around the sterling as a BoE (Bank of England) announced further compliance to the current rates – 0.5% refinance rate and a £375 billion asset purchase facility.
The minutes of the meeting showed there was an 8-1 favorable vote for maintaining the status-quo, Ian McCafferty being the only one (as accustomed) who voted for a 25 basis points rate hike at 0.75%. All the previous mentioned points had impacted the GBP/USD trend, pushing it to daily lows under the 1.5300 threshold.
USD denominated assets are suffering under the pressure of a persistent buying interest surrounding the American dollar. The WTI (West Texas Intermediate) barrel lost the momentum from the first part of the week, closing yesterday below the $46.00 level after a mid-$48.00 session close on Tuesday. Although the supply glut crisis in ongoing and analysis over the demand foresee a stagnation period, crude oil inventories are still going up.
