The Australian dollar gained today, and that was surprising as fundamentals did not look good for riskier commodity-related currencies.
Crude oil slumped more than 2% today, and falling oil prices usually have an adverse impact on commodity currencies, like the Aussie. Additionally, traders anticipate today’s US nonfarm payrolls to show a solid gain of employment, and that should have propelled the US dollar higher at the expense of other currencies, especially risky ones.
The only report released in Australia today was new home sales data from Housing Industry Association, and it was a minor one. The sales grew 0.8% in April after falling 1.1% in March. And even then, the report was not optimistic at all, saying:
The modest increase in new home sales during April will not negate the ongoing downward trend.
Yet despite all odds, the Australian currency managed to log gains against the majority of its most-traded counterparts.
AUD/USD gained from 0.7372 to 0.7393 as of 11:43 GMT today. EUR/AUD fell from 1.5200 to 1.5161. AUD/JPY rallied from 82.09 to 82.44.
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