020 7898 0500Elsewhere yesterday, the Australian dollar touched one-month highs, logging gains against 14 of its 16 most traded peers. The Australian dollar’s strength was down to a couple of factors, the first being soft employment figures out of the US on Friday. Friday’s weaker than expected figures reduced the possibility that Federal Reserve will taper again at this month’s central bank meeting, meaning the stimulus package will remain at its current levels – good news for the export-reliant Australian economy. The other drivers behind yesterday’s strength was the release of strong home loans figures, as well as in anticipation of Friday’s jobs report, which is also forecast to be strong. The Japanese yen also took significant strength following the US employment figures, trading at 3-month highs as we saw investors buy-in to the traditionally safe-haven Japanese yen. We saw the South African rand weaken the most out of the emerging-market currencies as traders sold-off the currency in anticipation of a mining report to be released later this week which is expected to show a slowing of production levels in Africa’s largest economy. Overnight last night we had business confidence figures out of New Zealand. Get in touch with your trader for a live rate.
