$ Little Changed On Thin Trading But Stronger Against Kiwi

With China and much of Asia closed for the Lunar New Year holiday and little carry over from the US from Friday, markets are quiet. AUDUSD is unchanged at 0.6524, off the intraday high of 0.6530. The USD index is down 0.1% with the key event in the US this week Tuesday’s January CPI.

• Aussie has strengthened against the kiwi rising 0.2% to 1.0631 after RBNZ governor Orr said that inflation is still “too high” which is why the “restrictive monetary policy stance” has been retained, but didn’t indicate any further tightening is needed.
• AUDJPY is moderately lower at 97.34. AUDEUR is down 0.1% to 0.6044 and AUDGBP is flat at 0.5164.
• Most equity markets are closed but the ASX is down 0.3% and NZX -0.7% but the S&P e-mini is flat. Oil prices have given up some recent gains with WTI down 0.6% to $76.40/bbl. Copper is flat and iron ore is slightly higher at around $127.50/t.,
• Later the Fed’s Bowman, Barkin and Kashkari make appearances, BoE’s Bailey and the ECB’s Lane, Cipollone and Buch speak. In terms of data there are January NY Fed 1-yr inflation expectations and US budget statement. RBA Kohler speaks and Westpac and NAB survey data are released in Australia tomorrow.