Australia: The AUD has opened slightly weaker this morning as some risk aversion trading came into play overnight with continued concerns over Europe.

The demand for 'riskier asset's' such as the AUD decreased due to investor concern that the problems coming out of Europe will not be able to be contained to just Ireland and Greece.

The AUD is currently trading around USD 0.9885 after spending most of yesterday's local session safely above the USD 0.9900 level.

Overseas equity markets were weaker overnight with the continued uncertainty spooking investors. In the US, while the DOW led a late
recovery, it still finished weaker, down 0.4%; and in Europe the Euro Stoxx 50 closed 1.2% lower.

The AUD is likely to keep a fairly tight range today with a lack of local data due for release. It should track the equity markets movements quite closely today before moving its focus to China once the Asian markets come into play this afternoon.

Majors: The EUR/USD has once again retreated, surrendering the gains that had come in the wake of Ireland's request for aid, as investors once against focused on other stressed euro-zone countries waiting in the wings.

While the rescue package for Ireland is positive for the region, the main focus has now moved to other countries in the area such as Portugal and Spain who many believe may follow Greece and Ireland and require financial relief to rescue them from their suspected debt problems.

Moving a little closer to home, S&P has announced that a ratings downgrade in New Zealand is possible if their current account deficit doesn't improve.

Fiscal policy is going to be the main driver to try to improve their economic position; and while this may be tough for some, this means that the RBNZ stance on monetary policy is able to remain accommodative for a while longer.

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