AUDUSD Movement
For the 24 hours to 23:00 GMT on Friday, AUD strengthened 0.33% against the USD to close at 1.0328, after the US Federal Reserve Chairman, Ben Bernanke said in a speech that the US central bank would consider rolling out stimulus measures should the US economy wane from its already lackluster recovery.
LME Copper prices declined 0.5% or $34.5/MT to $7576.3/MT. Aluminium prices declined 1.0% or $18.8/MT to $1848.8/MT.
Over the weekend, in China, the official manufacturing purchasing managers index (PMI) fell to a nine-month low of 49.2 in August from 50.1 in July.
In the Asian session, at GMT0300, the pair is trading at 1.0264, with the AUD trading 0.62% lower from yesterday’s close.
This morning, in Australia, AiG performance of manufacturing index rose to 45.3 in August compared to the reading of 40.3 in July. Data just released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics indicated that Australian retail sales fell 0.8% in July on a seasonally-adjusted basis.
In China, official non-manufacturing PMI rose to 56.3 in August from 55.6 in July. Separately, HSBC manufacturing PMI fell to a reading of 47.6 in August, its lowest level since March 2009.
The pair is expected to find support at 1.0218, and a fall through could take it to the next support level of 1.0171. The pair is expected to find its first resistance at 1.0333, and a rise through could take it to the next resistance level of 1.0401.
The currency pair is trading below its 20 Hr and 50 Hr moving averages.
