The Australian dollar is lower as risk assets recoil
Photo by Quinn Rooney/Getty Images The Australian dollar is trading lower this morning, dragged down as the European Central Bank indicated that further rate cuts may bot be forthcoming.
As at 8.15am AEDT, the AUD/USD buys .7446, down 0.52% from Wednesday's closing level.
AUD/USD eased overnight shortly after ECB President Draghi warned not to expect more ECB rate cuts for now, said CBA's currency strategist Elias Haddad in his morning note. "Draghi’s comments raised global growth concerns as participants are not convinced the ECB will do more easing to lift sluggish Eurozone economic activity."
With nothing on the domestic or regional data today, Haddad suggests the next point of market interest will arrive over the weekend.
"The next major AUD signpost will be the Chinese activity data batch (fixed asset investment, industrial production and retail sales) for January-February released on Saturday," says Haddad.
China's National Bureau of Statistics will release the data at 4.30pm AEDT Saturday afternoon.
According to a survey conducted by Thomson Reuters, industrial output, retail sales and urban fixed asset investment are all expected to decelerate over the period compared to those levels seen in December.
Industrial output is tipped to grow by 5.6% from 12 months earlier, down from 5.9% seen previously, with retail spending forecast to cool to 10.8% from 11.1% reported in December.
Urban fixed asset investment is expected to slow to 9.5% from 10.0%, something that will mark another fresh multi-decade low if realised.
Here's the current Australian dollar scoreboard.
- AUD/USD 0.7446 , -0.0039 , -0.52%
- AUD/JPY 84.27 , -0.02 , -0.02%
- AUD/CNH 4.8415 , -0.0025 , -0.05%
- AUD/EUR 0.6660 , -0.0003 , -0.05%
- AUD/GBP 0.5216 , 0 , 0.00%
- AUD/NZD 1.1175 , -0.0003 , -0.03%
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