Market Update – 15th June 2018 – U.S Retail Sales Surprise To The Upside, USD Surges Sending AUD/USD Lower

U.S retail sales came in far better than expected overnight, doubling estimates at 0.8% and surprising economists and traders alike with figures not seen since December of last year. The very bullish and perhaps surprising retail sales pickup provided a boost for the US Dollar helping the US Dollar Index surge to a 7 month higher following the biggest single day move since November 2016. Unfortunately that also means a quite substantial drop in AUD/USD which had been looking quite healthy in the mid 0.75’s but is now back in the lower part of a bi-monthly range in the mid 0.74’s.

The U.S Federal Reserve also lifted rates on Thursday morning whilst telegraphing at least two more rate hikes before the end of the year. All of this along with slightly weaker commodities prices has been dragging on the Aussie dollar over the past 24 hours.

For those following AUD/EUR and AUD/GBP: The Aussie dollar has had a good run against both over the past two months, however more recently we’ve see a reversion to the mean and selling which has brought both AUD/EUR and AUD/GBP off these two month highs. AUD/GBP in the low 0.56’s and AUD/EUR in the mid 0.64’s remains pretty good levels considering we had got to as low as 0.5412 and 0.6190 for AUD/GBP and AUD/EUR respectively in the past month or so.

AUD EXCHANGE RATES:

AUD/USD – 0.7474

AUD/GBP – 0.5632

AUD/EUR – 0.6455

AUD/NZD – 1.0724

AUD/JPY – 82.702

USD/BTC – $6,618

OTHER MARKETS: 

All Ords (XAO) – 6,129

Gold – A$1742/oz

Silver –  A$22.99/oz

WTI – US$66.81/barrel

DATA RELEASES TODAY:

USD – Prelim UoM Consumer Sentiment at midnight