Australia: The AUD was sold down early in the European session following the EUR sell off as sovereign debt concerns spooked the market. Rumours that the German Finance Minister Schaeuble suggested that Greece will have to restructure its debt started the panic and swift selling in the EUR which weighed on the AUD.

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These comments where latter denied and the currency bounced back as a result. Base metals finished slightly lower overnight with investors seen taking some profits, copper closed down 1.1%, nickel fell 1.7% and zinc finished down 0.9%. Gold traded to a high of US$1,475.60 overnight, while oil was firmer following reports that Saudi Arabia has reduced its output and Libyan output remains low. Today there is no local data due for release, however the market will be focused on the Chinese data that is released at 12pm AEST.

Majors: Overnight the US equity markets started the session sharply lower following the European lead as investors sought safe haven assets. Also weighing down the equity markets Google reported lower than expected earnings, while banks were weaker following the announcement of an inquiry into Goldman Sachs misleading customers.

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Some weak data in the US overnight also weighed on markets with the US Initial Jobless Claims the data for the week ending 9 April reporting a rise to 412k, up from the 385k the previous week and worse that the expected 380k the market was forecasting. The US Producer Prices for March rose by 0.7%, below the market forecast of 1.0% and down from the 1.6% last month. Later in the session, markets staged a recovery to finish slightly positive as news the House approved a spending bill to avert a government shut down. Markets today will also pay attention to the G-20 meeting which is focusing on economic imbalances, with China's growing FX reserves likely to be a
talking point.

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