AUD: A$ Pressured By Lower Commodities & HK/China Equities

Aussie is softer during today’s APAC trading with risk-sensitive currencies struggling against a stronger US dollar. Weaker commodity prices and HK/China equities are weighing on AUDUSD and the pair is down 0.1% to 0.6656. It looked through weak Australian confidence data though. The USD index is up 0.1%.

• Westpac consumer confidence fell 0.5% in September as respondents became more concerned about the economic outlook. NAB August business conditions fell to their lowest since January 2022.
• AUDJPY has been range trading and is currently around 95.37. AUDNZD is slightly higher at 1.0842 after a low of 1.0833. AUDEUR is down 0.1% to 0.6030 and AUDGBP is steady around 0.5093.
• Equities are mixed with the ASX up 0.6% but CSI 300 down 0.3% and Hang Seng -0.1%. The S&P e-mini is down slightly. Oil prices are little changed with WTI around $68.69/bbl. Copper is 0.4% lower and iron ore is down to around $91.50/t.
• Later the Fed’s Barr and Bowman speak and US August NFIB small business optimism is released. Also UK labour market data print and BoC’s Macklem speaks.