A very busy day expects forex traders. The Australian rate decision, American ISM Manufacturing PMI and Pending Home Sales, British Manufacturing PMI, European Unemployment Rate and many more economic indicators are due today. Let’s see what’s up.
Apart from the Japanese Yen that strengthened on the elections results, most currencies didn’t make big moves yesterday. Will the markets take a direction today?
Australian Building Approvals started the day with a rise of 7.7%, more than 3.3% that was expected. Also last month’s figure was revised upwards to a rise of 9.9%. On the other hand, Australian Current Account disappointed with a deficit of 13.3 billion, more than the expected 10.3 billion. These were only preludes to the rate statement.
As expected, the RBA held the Cash Rate at 3%, the highest in the West. The RBA Rate Statement was rather optimistic, referring to China’s growth. AUD/USD is trading between 0.84 to 0.8450.
Later in Australia, Commodity Prices are released. They strongly impact Australis’s economy. For more on the Australian dollar, read the Aussie Outlook.
Contrary to Australia’s strong economy, Swiss GDP is expected to show a continuation of the recession. GDP in Switzerland is predicted to fall by 0.9% in the second quarter.
German Retail Sales are expected to turn positive, and rise by 0.7% after falling by 1.3% last time. The more interesting German release for today is the Unemployment Change, which is predicted to rise again, by 33,000 jobs. A surprise here will boost EUR/USD as well as Merkel’s party.
European Final Manufacturing PMI is also expected to be confirmed at 47.9. The final European release if the all-European Unemployment Rate. It’s expected to rise from 9.4% to 9.5%. This is an important indicator for the ECB.
For more on the world’s most popular pair, check out the EUR/USD Outlook.
In Britain, bankers return from their summer holiday, and the indicators start flowing: Manufacturing PMI has already passed the 50 mark last time, and is now expected to advance from 50.8 to 51.5. At the time of writing, GBP/USD has made a small recovery, trading above 1.63.
Also in Britain, Net Lending to Individuals is expected to stay very low, at 0.4 billion, like last month. This squeezing number isn’t good for the Pound.
For more on GBP/USD, read the British Pound Outlook.
Moving to the US, ISM Manufacturing PMI is expected to return to expansion numbers, rising to 50.6 from last month’s 48.9. Yesterday’s Chicago PMI surprised and rose to 50. Will we see expansion intensions also here?
At the same time, another major American figure is released: Pending Home Sales are expected to rise by 1.7%, following on last month’s 3.6% rise.
Construction Spending and ISM Manufacturing Prices will also be published at the exact same time, 14:00 GMT, but will be overshadowed by the previous numbers.
That’s it for this busy day. Happy forex trading!