Market Update – 17th July 2017 – AUD Surges Past 0.7800 For First Time Since April 2016

*Yes, you’ve read those rates below correctly. AUD/USD is back above 0.7800*

The AUD went on a gargantuan run late last week managing to surge a whopping 200 points vs the Greenback and marking the first time since April 2016 that we’ve seen 0.7800 or higher. The reason for the strong rally was as a result of far poorer than anticipated economic data out of the U.S on Friday evening in which retail sales and CPI both missed expectations and in the case of retail sales actually went negative for the second month in a row. The poor data suggests perhaps the U.S reflation trade is unwinding and future rate hikes out of the Fed may been limited. Additionally the Trump trade which began in November may be slowly running out of steam as Trump displays a complete inability to do anything he promised, namely a big spend on infrastructure.

Ahead today is some Chinese economic data but other than that it’s likely to be pretty quiet until local employment data on Thursday.

AUD EXCHANGE RATES:

AUD/USD – 0.7823

AUD/GBP – 0.5967

AUD/EUR – 0.6817

AUD/NZD – 1.0644

AUD/JPY – 88.045

DATA RELEASES TODAY:

CNY – Chinese GDP and Industrial Production at 12.00pm (midday)