Australia: The AUD has opened back below USD0.8800 this morning after financial markets retreated on Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's comments before a US Senate Banking Committee.

Bernanke's comments were a little more ambiguous than the market had been hoping for, putting uncertainty over the outlook for the US economy back on the table.

It's becoming clear that the AUD is building solid resistance around the USD0.8850 area, and in order to break this level, we'll more than likely have to see some more upbeat news in relation to the global economic outlook.

Either that, or some very strong domestic data results to suggest the RBA will be hiking official interest rates soon.

With no major local data releases due for release today, expect the AUD to track the Asian equity markets throughout the local session.

Majors: All eyes were firmly focused on Ben Bernanke's semi-annual testimony to Congress overnight

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Markets were quick to grab on to Bernanke's comment that the outlook for the US economy is "unusually uncertain".

Such comments only highlight the fact that the US economy is still facing some tough times ahead and the road to economic recovery is still a rocky one. Bernanke also noted that in terms of monetary policy, the Fed still has "options, but they are not going to be conventional options".

Equity markets retreated, with the DJIA off by over 1%, while the USD strengthened against most of the other majors on renewed safe haven buying.

Clearly, Bernanke's comments were not what the market had been hoping to hear.

In the UK, the Bank of England released the minutes from their July meeting.

The minutes showed the BoE policy makers had considered easing official interest rates in order to continue to support the UK's fragile economic recovery.

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