AUD/USD at session high
The Australian dollar is up 33 pips to 0.7226 as it continues to carve out session highs. It began to turn around with Chinese stocks but it's the past week of trading as a whole that gets my attention.
Three things conspired to scream 'sell' in AUD.
- Fresh cycle lows in commodities
- The drop in Chinese stocks
- The horrid Q3 capex and construction reports
Despite all that, AUD/USD above where it was at this time last week -- and that's despite broad US dollar strength. In the past 7 days, only NZD has outperformed the Aussie.
AUD/USD for the past 10 days.
That's despite some weak data. The Q3 Australian construction report showed a 3.6% decline compared to -2.0% expected. The next day the Q3 private capex data showed a 9.2% fall (the largest on record) compared to -2.9% expected.
The Q3 GDP data is due on Wed after the RBA decision, which is in about 12 hours. There is a negative bias built into GDP and I like buying the dip but I might not get a chance if the RBA has an optimistic tone.
