Australia: The AUD has opened relatively unchanged this morning after a fairly non-eventful night.

While the AUD did fall below USD1.0100 as the USD continued to reap the reward from the better than expected payroll figures, it didn't last for too long. The AUD is currently trading at 1.0130.

The demand for the USD can also be attributed to concerns out of Europe which seem to have re-surfaced.

With these concerns investors moved out of riskier currencies and into the USD. US equities felt the pinch, with the DOW weaker by 0.4% and the S&P falling by 0.3%.

Today sees the release of Australia's Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal outlook which is likely to remind investors of the strong economic position our country is in.

The expectation of a Budget surplus in 2012 - 2013 is still there, but most are predicting that the size of the surplus will be diminished.

The NAB Business Survey is also due to be released today, and should give an indication on how business confidence and conditions are coping with the recent interest rate rise.

Majors: The USD wasn't the only asset to strengthen overnight with commodities following suit.

Spot gold hit a new record high overnight, and holding strong over USD1400/oz, as comments made by the World Bank President suggested that discussions should be had at this weeks G20 regarding a possible gold standard for currency markets.

As mentioned above the EUR was weaker overnight against the USD as concerns regarding Ireland sovereign debt came back into play.

An article suggesting that Ireland banks will soon have to deal with mass home defaults, the widening of the Irish 5 year yields to record highs and the proposed 2011 budget outlining that a further EUR6bio will be required in spending cuts and taxes didn't help investors confidence.

The NZD/USD was also fairly hard hit overnight falling over 1% against the USD.

A survey was released yesterday which showed that house prices in the region only rose by 1.1% YoY which indicates very slow growth in New Zealand's housing market.

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