The Australian dollar was mixed today, falling against some currencies, staying flat against others, but also managing to gain on the Swiss franc. Domestic macroeconomic reports released over the trading session were detrimental to the currency.
The Australian Industry Group/Housing Industry Association Australian Performance of Construction Index dropped to 40.4 in May (seasonally adjusted) from 42.6 in April. The figure below the neutral 50.0 levels indicates that the sector was declining with increasing pace. In fact, that was the steepest decline in six years.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics reported that the seasonally adjusted number of home loans fell 1.2% in April, month-on-month. That is compared to a decline by just 0.2% predicted by analysts.
AUD/USD slipped from 0.6975 to 0.6970 as of 8:56 GMT today. EUR/AUD was about flat at 1.6162. AUD/CHF gained from 0.6915 to 0.6926. GBP/AUD climbed from 1.8190 to 1.8242.
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