:: Australian Dollar: The Australian Dollar opens marginally higher from this time yesterday at 0.7965 after another 24-hour session in which most of the action happened offshore. A positive session on local equity markets supported the Aussie on Wednesday ahead of last night's unanimous and widely-tipped decision by the US Federal Reserve to leave their benchmark interest rate unchanged in the target range of 0 – 0.25 per cent. High yielders such as the Aussie and the Kiwi received a boost after the accompanying statement suggested that “economic conditions are likely to warrant exceptionally low levels of the federal funds rate for an extended period”.
- We expect a range today in the AUD/USD rate of 0.7900 to 0.8000
:: Great Britain Pound: Pound Sterling opens steady against the U.S. Dollar at 1.6400 after the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development said the UK economy will stabilise this year, revising their earlier forecast for a contraction. The pound moved as high as 1.6602 during overnight trade. Also underpinning the currency was a 1.2 per cent rally in local equities – the first such move in 3 days. Meanwhile, the pound was outperformed overnight by the Australian Dollar (2.0560) and the New Zealand Dollar (2.5660).
- We expect a range today in the GBP/AUD rate of 2.0450 to 2.0750
:: New Zealand Dollar: The New Zealand opens little-changed from this time yesterday (0.6380) after rallying as high as 0.6486 during offshore trade. High yielding currencies received a boost overnight after the US Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged at 0 – 0.25 per cent and said in an accompanying statement that “economic conditions are likely to warrant exceptionally low levels of the federal funds rate for an extended period”. Locally, traders will be turning their attention to today's current account data release at 10:45am local time and tomorrow's all-important March quarter GDP announcement.
- We expect a range today in the NZD/USD rate of 0.6340 to 0.6440
:: Majors: The big dollar has strengthened against the Euro (1.3926) and Japanese Yen (95.63) after positive economic data in the form of a 1.8 per cent rise in durable goods orders for May. As expected, the US Federal Reserve left benchmark interest rates unchanged at 0 – 0.25 per cent in a unanimous decision. The accompanying statement was closely watched by traders and noted that “economic conditions are likely to warrant exceptionally low levels of the federal funds rate for an extended period”. Also giving a boost to the greenback were comments by the committee which expects “inflation to remain subdued for some time”. First quarter GDP data is due for release in the United States on Thursday.
:: Data Releases:

  • AUD: No Data Today
  • CAD: No Data Today
  • EUR: Industrial New Orders Euro Zone, April
  • GBP: No Data Today
  • JPY: No Data Today
  • NZD: Current Account balance, Q1
  • USD: GDP Q1
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