The Australian dollar gained on other commodity currencies but was mixed against other most-traded peers today. The market sentiment was calm and domestic macroeconomic data was helpful to the Aussie. But economic reports in China, Australia’s biggest trading partner, were not particularly impressive, weighing on the Aussie a bit.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics reported that the seasonally adjusted trade balance surplus widened to A$5.8 billion in November from A$4.08 billion in October (negatively revised from A$4.5 billion). The actual value was far above the forecast figure of A$4.1 billion.
China’s Consumer Price Index rose by 4.5% in December on an annual basis, the same as in the preceding month. Analysts had predicted acceleration to 4.7%. The Producer Price Index fell 0.5% last month, year-on-year, after declining by 1.4% in November. The actual reading was close to analysts’ forecasts of a 0.4% drop.
The market sentiment was improving amid signs that the US-Iranian conflict is not going to escalate into a direct military confrontation. Both sides signaled that they want to avoid a war and at the present time are not planning to continue military actions.
AUD/USD was about flat at 0.6866 as of 13:47 GMT today. EUR/AUD went up from 1.6171 to 1.6185. GBP/AUD dropped from 1.9060 to 1.9013. AUD/NZD jumped from 1.0324 to 1.0373.
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