Investors square positions ahead of Jackson Hole Symposium

Key Movers

The Australian dollar remains little changed against the greenback on Tuesday trading within a 27 point range over the last 24-hours. The Australian macroeconomic calendar has little to offer this week with no scheduled data releases. US dollar found some support overnight on renewed optimism surrounding the prospect for US tax reform. The AUD/USD pair is currently trading at 0.7912, slightly down from this time yesterday 0.7938. We now expect support to hold on moves approaching 0.7880 while any upward push will likely meet resistance around 0.7945.


The New Zealand Dollar is weaker this morning when valued against the Greenback. The kiwi remains under broad-based downward pressure falling to an overnight low of 0.7272, down from the previous day’s high of 0.7334. Meanwhile the Aussie continues to outperform the Kiwi amidst the backdrop of the ongoing rally in Commodity Prices. The NZD/AUD pair his holding around 0.92 level currently trading at 0.9201 (1.0868). Today on the macroeconomic calendar all eyes are on the NZ monthly Trade Balance data for July which is due out at 8.45am.


The Great British Pound has not been able to sustain its highs above the 1.29 handle, as the Greenback saw renewed strength to advance against G10 currencies. Despite an uptick in UK manufacturing orders, selling pressure resumed overnight on the GBP/USD cross as the pair saw losses sustained into the European session to intraday lows of 1.2813. With no major domestic releases till Thursdays Q2 GDP print, The U.K. remains focused on the latest publishing of the Brexit position papers focusing on goods and services. The Sterling opens at 1.2825 this morning against the U.S. Dollar.


The U.S Dollar’s depreciation stalled through trade on Tuesday as the worlds base currency staged strong gains against both the Euro and Yen. Softer than anticipated German and Eurozone economic sentiment prompted a correction in the 19 nation combined unit as investors positioned themselves ahead of this week’s Jackson Hole symposium. Slipping back below 1.18 the Euro suffered its largest single day depreciation in over a fortnight against the USD touching intraday lows at 1.1747; while the dollar advance through 1.09 and 1.0950 Japanese Yen. With little headline data driving direction markets are simply adjusting positions ahead of key commentary from Central Bank figureheads Mario Draghi and Jante Yellen. While both are expected to deliver a largely unchanged rhetoric any implication to tighter monetary policy conditions could prompt a directional shift. The Euro’s recent appreciation has been largely led by expectations the ECB will begin tapering its quantitative easing program, however should Draghi continue to proffer a cautious bearing we may see a deeper Euro correction.