The Australian dollar dropped, reaching the lowest level against its US counterpart this year, as Forex market participants anticipate a set of poor fundamental data from the South Pacific country today.
Australian employment is expected to fall by 4,800 in April, following the increase by 44,000 in preceding month. Analysts predict that the unemployment rate will rise from 5.2 percent to 5.3 percent. The trade balance deficit widened from A$46.0 billion in February to A$49.8 billion in March, according to estimates before the government report.
The news from outside of Australia was also bad. Greece is still struggling to form a new government and the political turmoil threatens the stability of the whole eurozone. The MSCI World Index of shares slid 0.8 percent. All in all, the news was negative for the most currencies, except for safer ones.
AUD/USD traded near 1.0057 as of 00:45 GMT today after it fell from 1.0120 to 1.0050 yesterday and reached 1.0021 — the lowest rate since December 20. AUD/JPY was at 80.16, following the decline from 80.82 to 80.02 and the drop to the lowest level since January 19 of 79.71. EUR/AUD was down from 1.2877 to 1.2861 today.
If you have any questions, comments or opinions regarding the Australian Dollar,
feel free to post them using the commentary form below.