AUDUSD Above 70c, First Time Since August

AUDUSD is trading around its intraday high of just over 70c at about 0.7007, up 0.5% on Friday’s NY close. It reached a low of 0.6961 earlier. News of China tackling price gouging by its iron ore purchasers doesn’t appear to have dented the AUD and iron ore prices are only down 0.25%. The USD has seen some weakness in the APAC session so far.

• AUDNZD is moving sideways and is around 1.0928. Aussie peaked at 89.59 earlier against the yen but has unwound that to now be about 89.42. Aussie is +0.1% against both the euro and pound at 0.6447 and 0.5710 respectively.
• The December MI inflation gauge was steady at the series high of 5.9% suggesting that the next ABS monthly CPI print is likely to stay above 7%.
• Equity markets in the region have generally followed the northern hemisphere higher with the ASX up 0.8% and the Hang Seng +0.1% but the Nikkei is down 1% ahead of Wednesday’s BoJ meeting. WTI oil prices are back below $80 at $79.60 and copper prices are down 0.6%. Iron ore prices are around $120/tonne.
• There is little in the calendar later with the US closed for Martin Luther Kings Birthday. On Tuesday, Westpac consumer confidence for January prints which has been at depressed levels.