Australia: The AUD has opened lower this morning as weak data in Europe overnight saw investor's pullback from riskier trades.

The AUD had a very bullish start to the week, opening on Monday morning up at USD0.9380.

Wednesday night saw the local unit trade up near USD0.9600, its highest level since it touched USD0.9792 on July 25, 2008.

Talk of interest rate increases by the RBA as earlier as next month supported the AUD well as Australia's economy continues to chug along on the road of recovery.

Overnight saw a bit of profit taking by investors, then weaker than expected data out of Europe placed further pressure of the AUD.

With no major data of Australia and Asia today, the AUD will continue to track overseas markets with consolidation around USD0.9450 likely.

Majors: The EUR fell against the USD and the JPY overnight as worries resurfaced about the health of the European economy.

Economic data covering the eurozone showed signs that economies there, particularly Germany, had weakened in September.

Weak Irish GDP data also surprised the market with the Q2 figures showing a -1.2% contraction, the market was expecting +0.4% growth. The EUR fell close to $1.33, well of its high earlier this week of $1.3441.

US data was mixed, existing home sales rose 7.6% to 1.13M in August, while jobless claims data failed to impress. The USD was weaker against the JPY ahead of a meeting next Thursday between US President Barack Obama and Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan.

The meeting is widely anticipated following Japan's massive JPY2 trillion intervention in currency markets last week.