Australia: Renewed demand for growth related assets pushed the AUD higher overnight.

The higher yielding currencies had been sold off over the last few days due mainly to the North Korean missile attack and the Irish financial crisis.

However, data out of the US overnight has offered some hope that the US economy may be showing some signs of life and investors once again sold off the USD in favor of the AUD and other commodity currencies.

The AUD remains an attractive buy for most traders on any decent dips due to the significant interest rate difference between Australia and the rest of the developed world.

It is widely expected that the RBA will raise official interest rates even further next year, while in both Japan and the US there are no signs as yet that their interest rates will move from the close to zero level any time soon.

On the cross rates, the AUD has had strong gains against the EUR, breaking up through EUR0.7300 overnight.

Majors: US data released overnight was generally pretty positive.

Finally some good news on the jobs front, with initial jobless claims falling to 407,000 in the week ended Nov. 20, from a revised 441,000 in the previous week.

Personal income and spending figures were also largely in line with expectations.

The positive news pushed equity and commodity markets higher.

The DJIA was up by 1.4% and the Nasdaq was up by 1.9%.

Easing tensions between North and South Korea, along with further developments on the Irish bailout package, helped to boost investor confidence.

The Irish have announced a very tough austerity plan, which will see the government cut spending by a fifth and raise taxes over the next 4 years.

The Irish are widely expected to receive a bailout package of approximately EUR85 billion from the IMF and EU.

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