The Australian dollar rallied today, boosted by better-than-expected macroeconomic data for China. Domestic data was supportive as well. Yet that did not prevent the currency from reversing its gains later as it moved below the opening level against most major peers.
The Caixin China Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index climbed to 49.9 in February from 48.3 in January. It was “only fractionally below the neutral 50.0 mark.” Analysts had expected a much smaller increase to just 48.5.
The Reserve Bank of Australia reported that the index of commodity prices rose 9.1% in February from a year ago after increasing 6.5% in the previous month. As previously, the gains were led by increasing prices for iron ore, liquid natural gas, and alumina.
AUD/USD fell from 0.7092 to 0.7072 as of 20:02 GMT after rallying to the session high of 0.7122 earlier. EUR/AUD rallied from 1.6025 to 1.6057, bouncing from the daily low of 1.5983. AUD/JPY traded at 79.21, above the opening level of 79.00 but far below the session maximum of 79.65.
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