The Australian dollar traded higher against most of its major peers today, though gains were marginal. Friday’s macroeconomic data was mixed, failing to provide the currency any meaningful boost.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics reported that retail sales rose 0.4% in June from May, demonstrating the same rate of growth as in the previous month. Specialists had expected the growth to slow a bit to 0.3%. The Australian Industry Group Australian Performance of Services Index dropped to 53.6 in July, down from 63.0 in June. Despite the big drop, though, the index remained above the neutral 50.0 level, meaning that Australia’s services sector was still expanding.
As for economic news from China, Australia’s trading partner, it was not supportive to the Aussie either. The Caixin China General Services PMI dropped from 53.9 in June to 52.8 in July. Experts had predicted just a small fall to 53.7.
AUD/USD edged up to 0.7363 as of 10:35 GMT today from the open of 0.7357. EUR/AUD slipped from 1.5735 to 1.5720 after rising to the daily high of 1.5750 earlier. AUD/JPY went up from 82.13 to 82.25, touching the high of 82.36 intraday.
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