Bell FX Currency Outlook: The Australian dollar is trading just under 1.0500 and is well supported on any dips at the moment.

Australia: The Australian dollar is lower this morning as the US Fed Reserve failed to meet market expectations for further stimulus overnight.

The local unit is half a US cent lower opening at 104.60 this morning as the US dollar strengthened across the board following the FOMC announcement.

Official Chinese manufacturing data was mostly unchanged for July with figuresreleased on expectations during yesterday's session. Today locally will see the release of domestic Retail Sales and International trade data at 11:30am.With the Federal

Government's household assistance package coming through in June, expectations are for a boost to Retail figures.

A positive figure will see the local unit head back towards 105.00 against the greenback, after which market focus will turn to the ECB meeting tonight.

Majors: US equities declined overnight as the FOMC said it stands ready to act if need be but stopped short of announcing any further stimulus.

A technical "glitch" saw a spike in volume and volatility in equity markets leading up to the statement, with markets eventually ending the session lower.

The Dow Jones and S&P 500 both fell 0.3% to 12,976 and 1,375. Markets mostly disregarded a loss of momentum in the US industrial sector as the ISM manufacturing Index was released on expectations at 39.5.

European equities shrugged off the mixed data out of the US and Eurozone ending the session mostly higher. The FTSE 100 closed
1.4% higher at 5,713 with the German DAX declining 0.3% at
6,754.

Markets are now turning their attention to the ECB meeting tonight. Expectations have been mounting for firm action from the
ECB; after comments from ECB president Mario Draghi last week said he would do "whatever it takes" to protect the euro from the
debt crisis. Anything short of this or more rhetoric will disappoint.
Economic Calendar
02 AUGUST AU Trade Balance
AU Retail Sales
UK BOE Interest Rate Announcement
EU ECB Interest Rate Announcement