A poor local CPI figure released yesterday morning has been well and truly overwhelmed by the latest U.S FOMC meeting in which Janet Yellen left rates steady at 1.25% but promised to start unwinding years and years of quantitative easing (QE) which has grown to around US$4.5 trillion in assets on the Feds balance sheet. However all this has resulted in AUD/USD surging to fresh two and half year highs and not a sell-off as you’d expect. And to determine why this may be the case we need to dig a bit deeper. Many traders were expecting more hawkish rhetoric from the Fed and a more solid timeline as to when unwinding of this QE would take place and when the next rate hike is to occur, however of course that didn’t eventuate and a lot remains up in the air.
So for importers let the good times roll and with AUD/USD above 0.8000 on the wholesale market, your imports are the cheapest they’ve been in over two years. If you’d like to take advantage of rates as they stand please do contact me for a Forward Contract quote. Alternatively a quote on a Vanilla Option to protect 0.8000 is also an option.
AUD EXCHANGE RATES:
AUD/USD – 0.8003
AUD/GBP – 0.6107
AUD/EUR – 0.6815
AUD/NZD – 1.0647
AUD/JPY – 89.011
DATA RELEASES TODAY:
USD – Core Durable Goods Orders at 10.30pm
***Above rates are indicative wholesale rates and intended as a guide only***
Sign up for a Compass account today and access some of the most competitive rates in the business and arguably the best service.
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Patrick Downes
Senior Corporate FX Dealer
Phone Patrick – 0431 278 632
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