Bell FX Currency Outlook: The Australian Dollar is slightly weaker this morning, currently trading around USD1.0360 after a quiet night Australia.

There was a lack of top tier data and news headlines to direct trading, and as a result US equity markets and the AUD drifted slightly lower. The AUD fell to a one month low against the USD overnight following the release of the Chinese industrial profits which fell for a fourth consecutive month in July.

The main news during the offshore session was out of Germany, with their business confidence for the month of August falling for the fourth consecutive month; not a very positive sign for the largest economy in the already struggling Euro-zone.

In news out of the US; Chicago Fed President Charles Evans made comments in the speech in Hong Kong that he believes the US requires quantitative easing immediately and continue until the unemployment rate has dropped for six months. This did little to markets as Evans has always been an advocate for quantitative easing.

With no local data due for release today, we expect the AUD to trade in a fairly tight trading range ahead of some housing and manufacturing data due out of the US tonight.

Majors: European equity markets were able to shrug off the poor consumer confidence out of Germany and still post fairly strong gains.

The Euro Stoxx and Germany's DAX both posted gains of 1.1% after one of the members of the ECB's Executive Board repeated comments from ECB President Draghi earlier this month that the central bank may step in to buy government bonds to lower borrowing costs for peripheral euro-zone countries, but only after these countries formally requested aid.

Many investors however are waiting until Friday's speech from Ben Bernanke at Jackson, in the hope that he will give some hints of further accommodation from the US central bank. But there is also nervousness that there may be no action until after the release of the US jobs data, due out at the end of next week.

This could mean that any central bank action won't be discussed until after the two-day policy meeting at Jackson Hole on 13th September.
Economic Calendar
28 AUG AU HIA New Home Sales
US Consumer Confidence
US Richmond Fed Manufacturing Index

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