The Aussie takes the top spot on some surprise positive Australian economic updates, and positive global risk sentiment as global lockdown restrictions begin to ease.
Australian Headlines and Economic data
Monday:
Australian Job ads plunge 53% in April – ANZ
Australia Building approvals fall 4% in March
Australia and New Zealand discuss possible trans-Tasman ‘travel bubble’
Aussie drops at the start of the week, likely on a fresh round of global economic news (global factory activity sinks to new lows) and renewed tensions between China and the U.S. combined with the terrible Australian economic updates.
Tuesday:
Australia’s construction plunges to a record low in April
RBA maintains interest rates at 0.25% as expected
ANZ-Roy Morgan Australian Weekly Consumer confidence: 85.0 vs. 84.2 in the previous week
Australia, New Zealand work to open borders to each other
Wednesday:
Australian retail sales rose 8.5% m/m vs. 8.2% forecast and previous
Risk-off sentiment picked up to lift the yen somewhat broadly higher during the Wednesday U.S. session as we saw more anti-China commentary from US President Trump and Secretary of State Pompeo
Thursday:
Australian Services index hits 27.1 in April, a record low
Australia’s trade surplus swells to record as export prices soar – Positive global risk sentiment and the Aussie picked up around this release of this data. And the trend continued as news of more economies on the path to end lockdown restrictions. Better-than-expected Chinese trade data and more more positive news on Gilead Sciences’ COVID-19 drug remdesivir likely played a factor as well.
Friday:
No major catalysts from Australia so it’s likely that the Aussie maintaining its strength was a continuation of Thursday’s positive risk sentiment drivers, and possibly on not-as-bad-as-expected U.S. (20.5M jobs lost in April) and Canadian employment (2M jobs lost in April) updates.