A$ Stabilises, Little Follow Through From RBA Lowe’s Earlier Remarks

AUDUSD has stabilised after falling 2.2% on Tuesday due to the RBA becoming less hawkish and the Fed more so. It is up 0.1% in APAC trading to around 0.6588 after a low of 0.6581 on Tuesday, despite RBA Governor Lowe talking today of a data-dependent pause. The USD index is +0.1% after rising a percent yesterday.

• Aussie is higher against the major currencies. AUDJPY is up 0.2% to 90.48. AUDNZD is flat at around 1.0789. Aussie is also up 0.1% versus the euro and pound at 0.6247 and 0.5570 respectively.
• RBA Lowe spoke today and said that the RBA is operating in a very “data dependent world” but inflation remains too high and rates need to rise. See Policy Restrictive So Closer To Pause, But In "Data Dependent World".
• Equity markets are generally weaker following on from the US. The ASX is down 1% and the Hang Seng -2.4% but the Nikkei is up 0.4%. S&P e-minis are flat. WTI oil prices are trading sideways at around $77.55/bbl after slumping 4% on Powell’s comments. But copper is up 0.2% but iron ore down 0.1% to just under $127/t.
• Later today Fed Chairman Powell appears before the House Financial Services Committee. ECB President Lagarde also speaks. The Bank of Canada is expected to pause. Ahead of Friday’s US employment data, there is February ADP employment.