Australian Dollar: The Australian dollar opens this morning buying 1.0560 US Cents after reaching a rate of 1.0572 late Friday evening. With encouraging economic indicators sending US Stocks higher on Friday the Australian Dollar advanced in what proved to be a busy evening with a wide range of economic releases.

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With more than one-fifth of S&P 500 companies reporting results this week, the market will be wary as any further upside advancement seeing the Aussie embarking on levels never before seen. Meanwhile, the Aussie is higher on the cross rates and opens at 0.6470 against the British pound and 0.7310 against the Euro.

We expect a range today of 1.0510 - 1.0605

New Zealand Dollar: The New Zealand Dollar advanced further on Friday falling just short of the psychological 80 US Cents Mark. With technical resistance expected around such levels the kiwi did well to reach an eventual high of 0.7994 against the Greenback.

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Strong Commodity prices and robust results out of Asia on Friday spurred the kiwi during the offshore session with investors today looking ahead to see the release of the March Consumer Price index with inflation tipped to rise 1% pushing the annual rate to 4.6 per cent from 4 per cent in December. Meanwhile, the kiwi has moved higher against the Australian Dollar and opens today 0.7560.

We expect a range today of 0.7930 - 0.8040

Great British Pound: Despite further talk of less accommodative monetary policy in the UK, the pound fell from an overnight high of 1.6372 to open the new week at1.6295 against the greenback. Bank of England policy maker Mr Andrew Sentance, who has voted to increase rates at every monthly meeting since last June, said in an interview last Thursday "there's still quite a bit of evidence that theres some further upward pressure on inflation to come". Further weakness in the currency may push inflation to 5 per cent as imports increase. Consumer price growth is currently running at 4 per cent - double the central banks target. Meanwhile, the pound opens weaker against both the Australian Dollar (1.5420) and the New Zealand Dollar (2.0380).

We expect a range today of 1.5375 - 1.5450

Majors: The Euro (1.4410) retreated from 15-month highs during early trade on Friday as yields on Greek debt climbed to a record high of 10 per cent amid continued debt crisis fears in the Euro Zone. The 17-nation currency hit an overnight low of 1.4390 but made a comeback against the big dollar during the New York session after US economic data showed that inflation, excluding food and energy, cooled in March rising only 0.1 per cent to 1.2 per cent, less than many economists forecasts.

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Overall, the greenback finished the session marginally higher against several of its major counterparts after industrial production increased for a 5th-straight month in March by 0.8 per cent and the closely-watched University of Michigan consumer sentiment index climbed to 69.6 in April from 67.5 the previous month. The US Dollar opens steady against the Japanese Yen today at 83.20.

Data releases

AUD: No data today

NZD: CPI, Q1

JPY: No data today

GBP: No data today

EUR: Euro Zone consumer confidence, April

USD: No data today

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