Bell FX Currency Outlook: It was a fairly quiet session for currencies overnight with the AUD slowly drifting back towards the USD0.9550 level.

Australia: Despite the lack of any first tier data releases yesterday, the AUD performed well popping its head above USD0.9600 and staying above this level for much of the session.

Overnight we saw the AUD, along with most of the majors giving up ground against the USD in the lead up to this week's FOMC meeting.

The market believes there is a small chance the US Federal Reserve will announce its winding back its stimulus measures on Thursday, despite it being quite early for them to do so.

Today we have the RBA release of its minutes from their June Board meeting where they left rates unchanged. We are not expecting them to have changed their view from their brief statement released following the announcement and don't expect it to be a big market moving release.

Majors: The USD strengthened Monday night ahead of the Federal Reserve meeting Thursday (as mentioned above). Investors are hoping the meeting will shed some light on the shape of monetary policy in the US in the months ahead.

The USD gained versus the JPY, while the EUR was broadly stable ahead of reports on the manufacturing sector in the euro zone scheduled for tonight.

The Dow gained 109.67 points to 15179.85 as investors adjusted their positions ahead of this week's meeting. There was
some better than expected reports on the US housing market and New York area manufacturing which provided a boost to the market Monday.

China have a property prices report for May being released today while tonight we have UK producer and consumer prices and the EC/German ZEW surveys for June. In the US they have CPI, housing starts and building permits all for May ahead of the FOMC.
Economic Calendar
18 JUNE AU RBA Policy Meeting - June Minutes
CH China May Property Prices
UK Consumer Price Index
US Consumer Price Index