Australian Dollar: The Aussie began local trade yesterday flirting with parity, however a greater than expected drop in Building Approvals and ongoing flood concerns saw levels plunge down to 0.9945 by early afternoon. Bouncing off these lows the Aussie made a valiant attempt to move back above parity but fell just short and tumbled during the North American session as the Greenback picked up steam. A rocky night for the Aussie sees new short-term support holding near 0.9930, but in the event of favourable employment data from the US tonight a break below these levels could spell trouble.

We expect a range today of 0.9880 – 0.9970

[Get this delivered on your inbox for FREE. Subscribe to our daily Markets Newsletter.]

New Zealand Dollar: The New Zealand Dollar has been wrestling with the strengthening Greenback overnight and has been less willing to give up ground than its major counter-parts. An overall sideways trend has been observed with trade moving between 0.7550 and 0.7600. The resilient Kiwi opens today at 0.7570 with Non-Farm Payrolls the key upcoming event that may influence a break from this trend. With the Aussie failing to hold against the Greenback as well as the NZ Dollar, we have hence seen the cross-rate move in the Kiwi’s favour and we open today at 0.7620.

We expect a range today of 0.7510 – 0.7600

Great British Pound: The Pound traded stoically during a relatively quiet Asian session yesterday, holding above 1.5500 and even pushing to 1.5560 in the early London hours. Fundamental data was soon to trigger a fall, and upon the release of weak UK Manufacturing data Sterling dropped almost a cent to 1.5470. An attempted recovery was capped at 1.5550 and we open today back at 1.5470. Despite weak local data, Sterling has managed to hold above 1.5500 against the Aussie with a rally almost managing to break 1.56. Ground was also gained against the Kiwi, with 2.05 being broken towards the end of Asian trade, however both trading pairs open slightly lower this morning at 1.5560 and 2.0430 respectively.

We expect a range today of 1.5490 – 1.5600

Majors: The Greenback has continued to climb against its major trading partners with focus now directed to this evening’s much anticipated Non-Farm Payrolls. Proceeding a favourable basket of economic data of late, analysts are predicting employers to have added an extra 159,000 jobs to the world’s biggest economy. The Dollar has risen to a one-month high against the Euro, breaking through 1.30 for the first time since early December though the euro has re-established support at this handle. Yesterday’s Asian session also saw the US Dollar reach highs against the Japanese Yen, hitting 83.38 which is its highest level in 2 weeks. Some choppy trade saw the currency pair fall back below 83.00 but this was only momentary and we open today back up at 83.34.


Data releases

AUD: No data due for release

NZD: No data due for release

JPY: No data due for release

GBP: No data due for release

EUR: German Retail Sales m/m; Unemployment Rate; German Industrial Production m/m

USD: Non-Farm Employment Change; Unemployment Rate; Average Hourly Earnings m/m

More from IBT Markets:

Subscribe to get this delivered to your inbox daily

Follow us on Twitter.

Follow us on Facebook.