Quite a bit of information around today but interest once again takes on a local flavour.

Major currencies benefitted from a weaker USD. The EUR/USD opened at $1.16953 and remained steady early on. The pair climbed slightly before falling to session lows of $1.16514 in later trading. It was able to stage a turnaround as it rocketed up to highs of $1.17314 a short time later. It has come off those highs slightly, trading at $1.17207. The GBP/USD opened at $1.33127 then dropped to lows of $1.33008 a short while later. It then began a push up as the USD began to weaken. It has pushed to a high of $1.34163 before coming back ever so slightly to it’s current $1.34115 level.

The Dow remained largely flat throughout the session. It opened at 24,793.97 and remained reasonably unchanged during early trading. The Dow managed to climb to highs of 24,862.07 before tumbling to lows of 24,709.00 a few hours later. However, it was able to regain most of those losses and is currently trading at 24,841.30. The Dax threatened to break out, but gave up whatever gains it made. it opened at 12,765.01, dropped to lows 12,744.20 a short time later before rallying to highs of 12,922.10. It then lost those gains as it closed at 12,766.40, almost identical to its opening price.

Australia is the main focus today as it releases its GDP figure. As the main indicator of economic growth, markets will be watching this announcement very closely. Other data set for release today includes:

Australia – AIG Construction Index

Europe – European Retail PMI, Swiss CPI

Canada – Trade Balance, Building Permits, Ivey PMI

UK – MPC Members Silvana Tenreyro & Ian McCafferty speak

US – Revised Non-Farm Productivity & Unit Labour Costs, Trade Balance, Crude Oil Inventories

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