The Australian dollar stabilized after yesterday’s sell-off, edging a little higher versus the US dollar and the Japanese yen, though continuing to fall against the euro for the fourth straight day. It looks like traders paid more attention to the positive domestic data than to the reports from China, Australia’s biggest trading partner.
The Monthly Business Survey performed by National Australia Bank showed that the business conditions index improved materially from +7 in September to +21 in October. The business confidence index remained unchanged at +8, but it was above the long-term average.
The economic data released by the National Bureau of Statistics of China was not as hot. Industrial production, arguably the most important for Australia among indicators released in China today, rose 6.2% in October from a year ago. It was a slower growth than 6.3% predicted by analysts and 6.6% registered in the previous month. Fixed asset investment was up 7.3%, in line with market expectations but below the increase of 7.5% demonstrated in the previous reporting period. Retail sales grew 10.0%, compared to the September increase of 10.3% and the forecast rise of 10.5%.
AUD/USD traded at 0.7629 as of 12:11 GMT today after opening at 0.7623. AUD/JPY ticked up from 86.60 to 86.69. Meanwhile, EUR/AUD jumped from 1.5297 to 1.5366.
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