The Australian Dollar has slumped over 1.5 US centsafter commodity prices plummeted overnight.

Australia: The AUD was already trading lower after yesterday’s release of some weaker than expected retail sales data for March. The Australian Bureau of Statistics showed retail spending had decreased 0.5% in March, which was much worse than economists’ forecasts of a gain of 0.5%. The AUD dipped to USD1.0706 from USD1.0764 prior to the data release. Further unwinding of global risk appetite and another massive sell-off in commodities saw the AUD fall further offshore, getting closer to USD1.0500 level.

[Sign up here to get this report delivered to your inbox daily]

The price of sliver fell 10%, it biggest one day drop in USD terms since the 1970s, this dragged commodities down across the board, gold was down over 3%, while crude oil fell below $US100 a barrel for the first time since early March. There is no major data being released in Australian today however, there is a lot of exporter interest on the dips so the AUD may well be supported trading within USD1.0500-USD1.0650 on the day.

Majors: The USD received a dramatic boost overnight, rallying against most of the major currencies as market jitters over a global economic slowdown once again emerged. The EUR dropped around 2% against the USD, weighed down by dovish comments from the head of the European Central Bank as well as the broader risk-off move. The Japanese Yen however outperformed on the back of safe-haven buying, the USD slipped below JPY80 for the first time since March 18.
Investors will turn their attention to tonight’s US Non-farm Payrolls data, with the market expecting 180k jobs to have been added in the month. Any downside surprise could trigger further worries about a global economic slowdown and this would again weigh heavily on investors risk appetite.

Economic Calendar 6 MAY

AIG Performance of Construction Index APR
UK PPI Input / Output APR
US Change in Non-Farm Payrolls APR
US Unemployment Rate APR

More from IBT Markets:
Newsletter: To receive Global Markets update, sign up here