020 7898 0500Elsewhere yesterday, the Canadian dollar continued to struggle, hitting 3-year lows against its US counterpart. A string of recent data releases and economic forecasting paint a rather gloomy picture for the North American economy, and it is because of this that speculation is mounting in the market ahead of this evening’s interest rate decision by the Bank of Canada, with some traders betting on a reduction on the current 1% level. Following a strong day on Monday, the Australian dollar found itself on the back foot slightly yesterday following a statement from the central bank early yesterday morning. The sentiment remained much the same as it has done over recent weeks – with policy makers suggesting the currency is overvalued, and that should it remain at these levels it may have a detrimental impact on the export-reliant economy. As such the Australian currency looks prone to further weakness especially if the central bank continues to talk down the currency. The Japanese yen had an overall positive day, taking strength from a lack of confidence in the global marketplace, triggering a buy-in to the safe-haven currency. That said, it is still relatively very weak, with today’s strength bringing it just below 2009-lows against sterling. Last night we had GDP figures out of Australia, and later today, as mentioned, we haven interest rate decision and trade balance figures out of Canada.
