Market Watch AU – 20th December 2023
The US-dollar gained against the JPY after the Bank of Japan held rates steady following their meeting and doused any market optimism for tighter policy with a continuation of their dovish stance in accompanying statements. Against risk currencies however, the US-dollar was seen to lose ground as global stock markets enjoyed more of a December rally. This has seen another day of gains for the AUDUSD, taking it to 0.6770’s overnight, a five month high. The RBA Meeting minutes yesterday re-iterated a hawkish bank stance and underpinned the AUD gains as the divergence of US Fed and RBA policy becomes more prominent. The PBoC is also scheduled for its announcement on interest rates. From here the AUDUSD pair looks to 0.68-cents as the next resistance point and with significant gains over the last week would expect there to be a period of consolidation before this level is attempted. Support emerges at 0.6660 initially.
Wall Street enjoyed a broad-based rally with all 11 sectors of the S&P enjoying gains . The DJI was up +0.07%, the S&P500 gained +0.6% and the Nasdaq gained +0.7% by close. Australian shares are expected to open the day higher and take the lead from Wall Street.
Gold prices held up for another day as market as investor focus is eyeing off US economic data later this week for further clues as to the direction for the US Fed on interest rates next year.
Copper prices rose on China stimulus hopes and a softer US-dollar . Iron Ore futures on the Dalian exchange rose modestly yesterday and likely to get another lift from China’s latest stimulus measures. There is some nervousness amongst traders that higher inventory levels will be a drag on prices.
Crude Oil prices continued to move higher with shipments of crude redirected through southern Africa, a more expensive route, following last week’s Red Sea incident.
| AUDUSD
Open today 0.6763 Yesterday’s Range 0.6701 / 0.6775 |
NZDUSD
Open today 0.6272 Yesterday’s Range 0.6207 / 0.6273 |
AUDNZD
Yesterday’s Range 1.0780 / 1.0805 |
| AUDEUR
Yesterday’s Range 0.6135 / 0.6170 |
AUDCNH
Yesterday’s Range 4.7866 / 4.8247 |
AUDGBP
Yesterday’s Range 0.5288 / 0.5317 |
We hope you have found our expertly curated MarketWatch analysis useful in navigating the ever-changing FX landscape. To enhance our services and make sure you receive the most relevant and timely insights we have recently made some exciting updates to our newsletter.
To continue receiving our curated MarketWatch insights, we kindly request you resubscribe to our mailing list here: https://bit.ly/46YKOdo
