The Australian dollar behaved in a fashion similar to its New Zealand counterpart, falling intraday but rebounding later. Unlike the New Zealand dollar, though, the Aussie did not have support of positive macroeconomic data.
The only indicator released in Australia overnight, Australian Industry Group/Housing Industry Association Australian Performance of Construction Index, demonstrated a drop from 49.3 in September to 46.4 in October. The index, being below the neutral 50.0 level, indicated accelerating contraction of the sector. The report commented on the result:
Despite continued expansion in engineering construction activity, overall levels of activity in October were adversely affected by a faster decline in housing activity, commercial construction and apartment building work.
AUD/USD traded at 0.7282 as of 10:38 GMT today after opening at 0.7244 and falling to the daily low of 0.7213. AUD/JPY was at about 82.31 following the drop from the open of 82.17 to the session low of 81.87.
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