The AUD is slightly higher this morning, currently trading just above USD1.0300, despite a fairly lacklustre offshore session due to the closure of US markets as they celebrate Martin Luther King Day

Australia: It seems that despite the downgrades by Standard and Poor’s the night before, and further downgrades to the European Financial Stability Facility, it did little to affect the markets, with many believing that the downgrades have been better than expected. The EFSF was downgraded from AAA to AA+ as the continuing sovereign debt crisis plagues the region. Yesterday during our local session saw the release of the ANZ job advertisements which is a good indicator to current
employment conditions. Total job ads were 2.6% lower than the previous December month in 2010, and the first negative annual growth since February 2010. This indicates that we are set for a higher unemployment rate in 2012, with ANZ expecting the unemployment rate to rise modestly to 5.5% by the middle of the year. All eyes will be on the employment
figures which are due out on Thursday. Today, Chinese data will be the big market mover, as the fourth quarter GDP results are released at 1pm (AEDT).

Majors: In Europe, investors are also waiting on news out of Greece, following the recent downgrades. We don’t expect much news to come out until officials from the IMF, EU and ECB meet on Friday to further their discussions with private sector creditors. As mentioned above, the main focus of today’s trading session will be the Chinese GDP data which isdue out. Expectations are for a decrease in growth below 9%, which will be the first time this has happened since Q2 2009. Other Chinese data due out today includes industrial production and retail sales.

Economic Calendar
CH Real GDP 4Q
CH Retail Sales
CH Industrial Production
US Empire Manufacturing