The Australian dollar fell today against its major peers as poor China’s macroeconomic data overshadowed decent reports released in Australia. China is the biggest trading partner of Australia, therefore its economic performance has a big impact on the Australian currency.
Australian retail sales climbed 1.0% in April from March, seasonally adjusted, far above market expectations of 0.3%. Private capital expenditure rose 0.3% in the March quarter from the previous three months, a bit less than was predicted by analysts (0.4%). But the real bummer was the Caixin China General Manufacturing PMI, which dropped from 50.3 to 49.6 in May, falling below the neutral 50.0 level (thus indicating contraction of the sector) for the first time in almost a year.
AUD/USD dropped from 0.7428 to 0.7397 as of 10:24 GMT today. EUR/AUD gained from 1.5128 to 1.5177, and its daily high of 1.5225 was the highest since June 2016.
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