Bell FX Currency Outlook: The AUD is unchanged after the Easter break despite some weaker than expected US payrolls data which was released during Friday's offshore trading session.

Australia: As a result, the US equity markets lost ground, as investors digested the news that there is still a way to go before the economy recovers.

While the result was still a positive gain, with 120,000 jobs created during the month of March, it was well below the market expectation of an increase of 205,000, and ends a three month streak of greater than 200,000 jobs created.

We expect that this will have an effect on our local market today as investors digest the news. It is expected that the AUD may weaken slightly following the lead of equity markets, but also as investors buy up the USD as a safe haven trade, given the weaker results last week.

Locally today we have the release of the ANZ Job Advertisement series; and later on in the week the data continues to flow with the NAB Business Confidence & housing finance approvals tomorrow, as well as the Australian Employment data due out on Thursday.

Majors: As mentioned above, US equity markets have taken a dive, as a reduction in risk sentiment plays through the markets following Friday's payrolls results.

The DOW was down 1% and the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq were both 1.1% weaker. Concerns regarding Spain's financial stability continued, with many fearing that it will be the next European country to require a bailout; and this only added to the risk aversion in the market.

The EUR/USD weakened as a result, currently trading around USD1.3100. The GBP/USD also followed the lead of the EUR/USD over the weekend, with weaker than expected manufacturing data out of the region causing the small sell off. Offshore this week there is a large amount of data due for release; including top tier Chinese data such as GDP, as well as some trade, CPI and PPI data out of the US.

Economic Calendar
10 APR AU Nab Business confidence
CH Trade Balance
US Wholesale inventories
US Fed Fisher speaks