Bell FX Currency Outlook: It was a quiet night offshore ahead of Mr. Ben Bernanke's testimony tonight.

Australia: The AUD rallied yesterday after the RBA Minutes, the market interpreting them as less dovish and reducing the chances of a rate cut in August slightly. We acknowledge the outcome of the August RBA meeting will be close but continue to expect a 25bps cut in rates.

This morning the AUD has continued to trade with a bid tone and is now approaching its highs for July (0.9306 on 11 July). Today, we expect trading close to the overnight range, with a bias to buy the AUD tonight, running into Ben Bernanke's speech which could prove to be US dollar negative.

Majors: The USD was generally weaker overnight, presumably due to positioning ahead of Ben Bernanke's testimony today. Over the past 24 hours the USD lost ground against all of the currencies in the G-10 basket.

Commodity prices rose with the weaker USD, the exception being the price of oil, which came off as tensions in the Middle East seemed less pronounced.
Economic Calendar
17 JULY JN Bank of Japan Jun meeting minutes
US Fed's Ben Bernanke Delivers Semi-Annual Testimony
US US Federal Reserve Releases Beige Book
UK Bank of England Minutes