The Australian dollar continued to show strength today with the help of a positive trade balance report from China. The currency managed to hold onto gains even as domestic data was not helpful, showing a decline of consumer sentiment.
Chinese imports surged, but this did not prevent an increase of the nation’s trade surplus from $25.6 billion to $31.9 billion. The data improves prospects for Australia’s exports to the nation’s biggest trading partner. Meanwhile, the Westpac Melbourne Institute Index of Consumer Sentiment fell by 3.0 percent in February. The report noted that “this is a surprisingly weak result” and said:
The theme from this survey appears to be that households are particularly worried about the future.
Commodity-related currencies in general were stronger after the speech of Janet Yellen. The Chairwoman reminded that stimulus tapering is not on a “pre-set course” and will be performed in “measured steps”.
AUD/USD was up from 0.9036 to 0.9056 as of 5:34 GMT today. EUR/AUD went down from 1.5086 to 1.5048, and AUD/JPY advanced from 92.74 to 82.86 following the drop to 92.29.
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