The Australian dollar rallied against its major peers today with the help of surprisingly good GDP data. Other reports from Australia and its biggest trading partner, China, were not as good, making the Aussie lose some of the gains against the US dollar and retreat below the opening level versus the euro and the Japanese yen.
Australia’s seasonally adjusted gross domestic product rose as much as 1.1% in the March quarter from the previous three months, rising at almost two times the forecast rate of 0.6%. Meanwhile, AIG manufacturing PMI tumbled from 53.4 in April to 51.0 in May.
China’s manufacturing index was also at 51.0 in May, unchanged from April, at least according to the official data. Yet the private Caixin report showed that China’s manufacturing index fell from 49.4 to 49.2 last month, remaining below the neutral 50.0 level. In fact, it was the fifteenth month of decline for the sector.
AUD/USD was up from 0.7230 to 0.7298 intraday before trading at 0.7258 as of 19:28 GMT today. EUR/AUD dipped from 1.5382 to 1.5236 but has recovered and is trading at 1.5418 currently. AUD/JPY slid from 80.05 to 79.48.
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