Strengthening USD Sees Aussie Dollar Tumble

The AUDUSD opens lower at 0.6803 and the NZDUSD opens at 0.6557 this morning.

The major news overnight was an unexpected announcement from Trump saying that he is putting a 10% tariff on a further 300 Billion of Chinese Imports to the US. This is due to get enacted on September the 1st. This announcement does not bode well for trade talks, and is seen as a further escalation in the Trade War. This has led to a widespread risk-off move across the board, with safe havens like the Japanese Yen and Gold benefitting the most. Oil prices were down over 7%, which gives an indication to how seriously the market has reacted.

As you might imagine, with Australia having more exposure to China, the Aussie Dollar has fared less well than the Kiwi, down at least 0.5% against all its major trading partners. If we ignore the brief flash crash this January, the AUD is trading at the lowest level against the USD since 2009. For now the 0.6800 level seems to be holding, but we are not far off stop/panic selling if that breaks.

We have Australia Retail Sales out at 11:30 AEST, and US Non-Farm Employment Change overnight. Usually these would be closely watched, but given the backdrop, sentiment (and Trump's twitter feed) will most likely be more market moving.

Global equity markets are lower, Dow -0.71%, S&P 500 -0.63%, FTSE -0.03%, DAX +0.53%, CAC +0.70%, Nikkei +0.09%, Shanghai -0.81%.

Gold prices are coming in very strong, up 2.6 to $1,455 an ounce. WTI Crude Oil prices plunged, down 7.2%, trading to $54.43 a barrel.

Upcoming Data Releases

• AU Retail Sales - 11:30 AEST / 13:30 NZST

• US Non Farm Employment Change 22:30 AEST / 00:30 NZST

Mid-Market Rates

AUDUSD0.6803-0.5%NZDUSD0.65570.0%AUDEUR0.6136-0.7%NZDEUR0.5913-0.2%AUDGBP0.5602-0.4%NZDGBP0.53980.1%AUDJPY73.07-1.8%NZDJPY70.42-1.3%AUDNZD1.0377-0.3%NZDAUD0.96370.5%GBPAUD1.78460.4%NZDCAD0.86650.1% GBPNZD1.8519-0.1%
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