The Australian dollar rose against its most-traded rivals today, supported by domestic macroeconomic data and other positive fundamentals. There were negative factors as well, but positive ones had ultimately bigger impact.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics reported that the seasonally adjusted number of lending commitments to household rose 2.6% in February following the 2.3% drop in January. Analysts had predicted a drop by 3.0%.
Market analysts speculated that the recent rally of prices for crude oil, caused by supply concerns, helped commodity currencies in general, including the Aussie. With that said, prices for the global benchmark Brent grade have retreated by now.
Among fundamentals negative to the Australian currency was the downgrade of the house price outlook in Australia by Moody’s Investor Service. Moody’s predicted house prices will fall 7.7% this year.
AUD/USD rose from 0.7125 to 0.7143 as of 11:29 GMT today. EUR/AUD slipped from 1.5798 to 1.5783. AUD/CHF gained from 0.7118 to 0.7140.
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