U.S. one-hundred dollar bills are seen in this photo illustration at a bank in Seoul August 2, 2013. Picture taken August 2, 2013.
U.S. one-hundred dollar bills are seen in this photo illustration at a bank in Seoul August 2, 2013. Picture taken August 2, 2013. Reuters

Bell FX Currency Outlook: The Australian Dollar is lower following weak employment data.

Australia: The AUD dropped a cent against the USD yesterday after unemployment was reported to be at a 10 year high of 6.0%, missing analysts' expectations of 5.9%. The employment numbers showed a decline of 3.7K in January, worse than market expectations of +15K, with a fall in full-time employment of 7.1K. The AUD touched a low of 0.8928 following the data but has since rallied back up to current levels of 0.8990 following USD weakness after disappointing retail sales data, which was expected to be flat but fell 0.4% in January. In a quiet day for domestic data, the likely focus for our session will be RBA Assistant Governor (Economic) Christopher Kent speaking on the resources boom and the
Australian Dollar this morning, and Chinese CPI and PPI. The CPI is expected to slow to 2.4%yoy in January from 2.5%, and the PPI to -1.6% from -1.4%.

Majors: US equity markets finished the session higher, erasing the early losses which followed the poor retail sales data, which saw the USD fall against the GBP, EUR and JPY. The market was buoyed by Comcast's $45bn deal for Time Warner and some good corporate earnings figures. Tonight markets will be looking towards GDP data from France and Germany (the major Eurozone economies) and the Eurozone as a whole. German growth is forecast to rise 0.3% in Q4 and 1.3%yoy, while Eurozone GDP tonight is expected to show a 0.2% gain in Q4 after the 0.1% gain in Q3. In the US have industrial will be the key focus.

Happy Valentine's Day.

Economic Calendar

  1. 14 FEB CH CPI YoY
  2. GE GDP SA QoQ / NSA YoY
  3. EC GDP SA QoQ / Yoy

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