HiFX Morning Update, April 10 2017

HiFX Morning Update, April 10 2017

AUDUSD 0.7501 -0.5%
AUDEUR 0.7081 0.0%
AUDGBP 0.6051 0.1%
AUDJPY 83.31 -0.3%
AUDNZD 1.081 -0.1%
GBPAUD 1.6515 -0.1%

The AUDUSD opens at 0.7501 (mid-rate) this morning.

The AUD along with other risk-traded currencies fell on Friday afternoon as news that US warships in the Mediterranean Sea launched 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles targeting the al-Shayrat airbase in central Syria. The fall was not as great as one would expect in these circumstances and overall markets reacted in a controlled fashion.

Friday’s non-farm-payrolls disappointed with the report showing an increase of 98k jobs for the month of March well short of the expected 180k increase. February’s previously reported 235k increase in jobs was also downwardly revised to 219k. Interestingly the unemployment rate which had been expected to remain unchanged at 4.7% fell to 4.5%.

The GBP weakened following reports that year on year industrial production growth slowed to 2.8% from 3.3% in January, and the deficit on trade in goods and services widened to GBP3.7 billion in February 2017 from a revised deficit of GBP3.0 billion in January. The report showed a GBP0.4 billion decrease in exports and a 0.3 billion increase in imports.

The key domestic data releases for the AUD this week will be Thursdays employment report and the RBA Financial Stability Review, while geo-political news is likely to play a big part.

Global equity markets closed out the week mixed- Dow -0.29%, S&P 500 -0.08%, FTSE -0.05%, DAX +0.20%, CAC -0.24%, Nikkei +0.93%, Shanghai +0.64%.

Gold prices were little changed on Friday closing out the week at $1,253 an ounce .WTI Crude Oil continued to push higher on Friday closing out the week at $52.24 a barrel.

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