Lawrence Villamar

The Australian dollar received a boost yesterday after data revealed China’s Trade Surplus surged to 31.6 Billion in December.

Increasing the pressure on the Reserve Bank to further lower domestic interest rates Retail Sales suffered a surprise blow in the month of November falling by 0.1 percent

Having started the day around the 1.05 mark against its US Counterpart the Australian dollar headed south intraday. Dragging the local unit to lows of 1.0468 Australia’s trade deficit unexpectedly widened in November to $2.64 billion as stronger imports outstripped the pace of iron ore export growth.

Wegelin & Co., the oldest Swiss private bank, said on Thursday it would shut its doors permanently after pleading to a criminal conspiracy charge in the U.S. and admitting that it had helped wealthy Americans for years avoid tens of millions of dollars in taxes.

The Aussie’s strong rally since the ‘fiscal cliff’ was averted has come to an abrupt end on the back of the minutes from last month’s Fed meeting which has shown a split in how long the participants want to continue the current money printing programs.

The last minute U.S. budget deal may have spared millions of Americans the burden of higher taxes amid a weak economic climate.

Japan's population shrank by an estimated 212,000 people in 2012, claimed the nation's Health Ministry on Monday, as concerns continue to mount the nation's rapidly aging population and low birth rates.

The deal put forward by the Senate prior to yesterday’s open was passed by the House of Representatives during our session yesterday and it has seen a solid jump in the Aussie.

The New Year saw US policy makers come to a budgetary agreement in the US Senate. The deal included compromises in payroll tax cuts which would rise to 6.2% from 4.2% and higher income taxes on the wealthy while the unemployed would still be eligible for extended jobless benefits.

Beijing will introduce tough new laws as well as an "accountability system" to crackdown on rampant food safety violations, the official Xinhua news agency reported, a significant move aimed at the elimination of food scandals that have claimed several lives in recent years.

For more than a year now, Cyprus has been shut out of international capital markets after its banks suffered huge losses from their exposure to Greece

Europe's largest bank by market value will pay $1.9 billion in fines to settle money laundering allegations by US regulators, according to sources familiar with the matter.

Last week saw big moves in the Aussie as we reached highs above 1.0570 earlier in the week on hopes a deal would be done early to solve the fiscal cliff, as the week wore on and hopes dropped so too did the risk correlated AUD.

The Aussie continues to remain under pressure on concerns that US fiscal cliff issues will drag on past Christmas.

Another fairly quiet session as we begin to see volatility flatten and ranges harden heading into the Christmas period. The Aussie underperformed compared to most of its counterparts yesterday which was surprising given the positivity in regards to fiscal cliff talks in the US.

According to a new study by the National Intelligence Council, the United States will likely remain as "first among equals" in a multipolar world, but Asia's economy, military spending and technological investment will likely surpass that of the US and Europe combined by 2030.

The Philippines would strongly support Japan dropping its pacifist constitution to become a fully-fledged military force, said a government spokesperson.

The Australian dollar remained relatively unchanged yesterday after minutes from the RBA’s most recent meeting failed to give any further mention of short-term interest rate movements.

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The Aussie was generally weaker on Monday in part because of its strong rise towards the end of last week and also because of the general market expectations for the release of the RBA minutes later today

The Australian dollar remained firm during intraday yesterday consolidating nicely the gains witnessed across the board this week.

It was a lacklustre session domestically for the Australian dollar yesterday which remained firm in the face of a business confidence survey which plummeted to its lowest level since April 2009.

Despite weaker than expected trade figures released out of China yesterday investors instead choose to focus on improved signs of growth in the world’s second largest economy as witnessed by the release of industrial production and retail sales data announced over the weekend, both beating forecast.

Tech giant Apple Inc will invest nearly $100 million next year in order to shift a small proportion of its production capabilities back from China to the United States, announced its chief executive Tim Cook on Thursday, in a move widely seen as a high-profile test of American manufacturing competitiveness.

Crisis-hit EU nations are considered among the most corrupt in the European Union, according to the 2012 Corruption Perceptions Index by Transparency International, a global anti-corruption watchdog.

Following a week in which in the RBA cut rates of 0.25 percent, the number of unemployed dropped and economic growth remained on target you’d think the Australian dollar would be in for a bumpy ride.

The big news for the Aussie yesterday was the employment data which surprised most investors with the unemployment rate dropping to 5.2% in November and 13,900 new jobs added

Most months the GDP figure is followed quite closely by investors and has at least has some influence on the market, however yesterday the data passed by with little interest and the market held within a fairly tight range of less than 20 points.

It was a bumpy ride for the domestic unit yesterday after the Reserve Bank of Australia cut the official benchmark rate by 0.25% to 3.00%.