Market Update – 19th January 2017 – Markets Volatile Leading Up To Trump Inauguration

Apologies about no reports this week, I’ve been battling with a nasty cold and lost phone which has really put me behind the 8-ball this week.

Equity markets and commodities have tracked a volatile yet predictable course leading up to the inauguration of Donald Trump on Saturday morning AEST with the Dow Jones Industrial failing to break 20,000 despite getting very close on a number of occasions, while commodities such as oil and iron ore have sea-sawed back and forth.

The Aussie dollar has however bucked the trend managing to add gains consistently day in day out through January. In fact since early Jan we have rallied some 4-5% vs not only the Greenback but also vs. the Euro and GBP marking one of the best January’s for the Aussie dollar since 2012. With AUD now near 2-3 month highs vs. a lot of the majors and with the inevitable volatility surrounding Trump’s inauguration Saturday morning I’d suggest clients who are looking to hedge do so now, but perhaps only a portion of your hedging as we’re really in quite uncharted/unpredictable waters with respect to the likely direction of the Aussie dollar throughout 2017.

Aussie employment numbers are the big local data announcement today with the latest employment figures due around 11.30am. U.S economic data and the latest monetary policy/interest rate decision is due from the ECB later this evening.

DATA RELEASES TODAY:

AUD – Employment Data at 11.30am

EUR – Minimum Bid Rate (cash rate) at 11.45pm

USD – Building Permits/Philly Fed Manufacturing Index at 12.30am

AUD EXCHANGE RATES:

AUD/USD – 0.7503

AUD/GBP – 0.6111

AUD/EUR – 0.7042

AUD/NZD – 1.0500

AUD/JPY – 85.67