Australia: The Australian Dollar has opened weaker this morning trading around the 0.8950 level after a fairly quiet US session on Friday night in which US data releases were not that bad in relation to consensus.

Base metals fell on Friday night as did Oil while Gold edged higher to be trading at US$1,215.00 per ounce on safe haven buying.

While the AUD cross rates continue to hold strong the AUD is coming under pressure against the Greenback as investors seek safe haven USD assets.

Locally the market is expected to be driven by offshore events today, while the RBA Board Minutes are due for release tomorrow, which should show some inside into the Board members views on the Australian economy.

Wages data on Wednesday will be worth attention with offshore markets focussing on a range of data from the US, New Zealand, Euro Zone, UK and Canada.

AUD/USD continues to ease when the US mainatains a "go to" if safe haven flows originate on risk aversion, especially when the words "global slowdown" are discussed.

Majors: US Equity markets finished Friday's session weaker as some positive data releases out of the US were unable to entice investors.

The Dow ended down 0.2% the Nasdaq fell 0.8% and the S&P ended down 0.4% as investor continued to be concerned of the growth outlook for the US and Global growth. US CPI data rose 0.3% for July with ex-food and energy up 0.1% and the US Retail Sales data reported a rise of 0.4% for July.

Also released on Friday night was the US Uni of Michigan Consumer Confidence data for August, which rose to 69.6 from 67.8, better than the market expected, with these indicators still pointing to positive growth despite very low.

Meanwhile in Europe the Euro-zone GDP for Q2 reported a rise of 1% to be up 1.7% year on year.

The German GDP grew by 2.2% in Q2 nearly double the expectations and a 23 year high.

Germany has been benefiting from a weak euro, strong manufacturing sector and solid export demand as its other European competitors are struggling.

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