Australia: The AUD rallied early in the European session, then fell away to trade a low of USD1.0502 as US growth concerns spooked markets.

The AUD staged a late recovery as weak US data saw the bond yield fall.

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Yesterday locally we saw the release of the RBA Board Minutes from its May meeting, with the board noting the likelihood of higher rates at some point.

The minutes also said that they believe inflation will remain at the top of its 2- 3% band for some time as higher wages and lower unemployment heighten inflation.

Today locally will see the release of the Wage Price Index which will be closely watched as it feeds inflation concerns.

Base metals finished the session weaker overnight with copper down 0.5 %, nickel -0.8% and aluminium -1.8%. Gold fell 0.7% to be trading at US$1,480.00 an ounce while Oil is trading at US$96.91 a barrel down 0.5%.

Majors: Overnight saw the continued European debt concerns weigh on markets despite the approval of a bailout plan for Portugal.

The talks in regards to the potential re-structure of Greece's bailout package continues to weight on markets, despite comments from the IMF and EU that progress is being made.

A meeting overnight between the Euro-zone finance ministers saw the endorsement of the Bank of Italy's head, Mario Draghi as the next President of the ECB, taking the position on November 1, after Trichet's term expires. In the UK overnight saw the release of the UK CPI for April jump to 3.7% year on year, which was higher than the markets were expecting.

Meanwhile in the US overnight saw the release of the US Housing starts for April which fell 10.6% while the industrial production data for April was flat.

US equity markets finished the day lower with the Dow down 0.6% as Hewlett Packard fell 7.3% on weaker earnings reports; with both the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 finishing the session flat.

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