Home Daily Commentaries RBA likely to keep interest rates on hold

RBA likely to keep interest rates on hold

Daily Currency Update

AUD - Australian DollarThe Australian dollar is slightly stronger this morning when valued against the Greenback. The Aussie dollar reached an overnight high of 0.7131 backed by Chinese data released during the weekend. On the release front yesterday saw March AIG Performance of Manufacturing Index printed 51, below the previous 54, while the TD Securities inflation estimate for the same period was of 0.4%, better than the previous 0.1%. Looking ahead today and all eyes will be on the Reserve bank of Australia (RBA) interest rate announcement at 2.30pm AEDT. The RBA has kept its cash rate at a record low of 1.5% since August 2016, and no changes there are expected in the nearer term.From a technical perspective, the AUD/USD pair is currently trading at 0.7106. We continue to expect support to hold on moves approaching 0.7090 while now any upward push will likely meet resistance around 0.7140.

Key Movers

Overnight the Greenback gathered momentum on the back of better-than-expected local U.S. data. Yesterday saw the release of Markit Manufacturing PMI which suffered a strong downward revision, from 52.6 to 50.5, but the official ISM index surged to 55.3 surpassing the expected 54.5 and above the previous 54.2. We also saw the release of US Construction Spending rise by 1.0% in February, surpassing the market's expectations. Looking ahead in the U.S. today and all eyes will be on Durable Goods Orders for February, seen falling by 1.8% after January reading was downwardly revised 0.3%.

Expected Ranges

  • AUD/NZD: 1.0400 - 1.0500 ▲
  • GBP/AUD: 1.8230 - 1.8440 ▼
  • AUD/USD: 0.7000 - 0.7200 ▲
  • AUD/EUR: 0.6240 - 0.6400 ▲