Bell FX Currency Outlook: The Australian dollar has opened this morning around USD.9760, after trading down to a low of USD0.9690 overnight as European equities followed Asia's lead falling around 2.5%.

Australia: The comments from the former Greek Prime Minister yesterday, about a possible Greek exit from the Euro-zone weighed on markets sending everything except the USD & JPY down. Base metals where sold off with copper down 2.7%, lead -1.8% and zinc -1.7%.

Soft commodities were also lower with wheat down 2.9%, sugar -1.5%, soybeans -1.4%; while corn bucked the trend rising by 1.1% on concerns that drier weather through the US Midwest could impact the recently seeded crop.

Gold was also sold off early in the European session on a strong US Dollar, but managed to recover most of its losses to end down 0.4% at US$1,561.58 per ounce, while oil ended down 1.3% at US$ 90.46 a barrel.

Yesterday's local data saw the release of the Westpac Leading Index which rose 0.4% in March, while the Australian Skilled Vacancies reported a fall of 7.0% in April to be down 14.7% year on year.

Today will see the release of the Australian Bureau of Resource and Energy Economics Major Resource Projects six month update. This report is unlikely to be market moving, with more focus to be paid to the Chinese Flash HSBC Manufacturing PMI, and any developments out of Europe.

Majors: In the US overnight equity markets finished un-changed, staging a strong recovery with the DOW gaining 150points in the last 90 minutes of trading, to end down just 0.1%. On the data front; US New Home Sales rose 3.3% in April, better than the expected 2.1%, and a positive result following the 7.3% decline in March.

Meanwhile in the UK, the Bank of England minutes from its May meeting showed the committee voted unanimously to keep the bank rate unchanged at 0.5%.

Economic Calendar
24 MAY NZ Imports / Exports APR
GE PMI Manufacturing MAY
UK GDP Q1
US Durable Goods Orders APR