Daily Forecast - 12/1/2010

:: Australian Dollar: The Australian Dollar opens marginally higher on Tuesday against its U.S. counterpart at 0.9311. The Aussie opened strongly yesterday and surged towards US93 cents during steady follow-on trade after last week's weaker-than-expected US non-farm payrolls data. Support for the local unit came from very strong Chinese trade data released yesterday which showed that exports climbed 17.7 per cent in December, whilst imports jumped 55.9 per cent. Also underpinning the local unit on Monday was the release of the ANZ Bank survey of job advertisements which rose 6 per cent in December - the strongest monthly rise in over two years. During the offshore session the currency moved between a low of 0.9281 and high of 0.9319.

- We expect a range today in the AUD/USD rate of 0.9250 to 0.9330

:: Great Britain Pound: The Sterling hit an overnight high of 1.6193 overnight as a broad bout of Greenback weakness moved through the markets on the back of weaker than expected employment numbers last Friday. Also supporting CABLE last night was the release overnight by the Confederation of British Industry which reported that companies are more optimistic about the local and global economy than a year ago. Sterling moved between 1.6064 and 1.6193 in the overnight session. Against its southern hemisphere counterparts, the Pound has strengthened and is currently changing hands at 1.7265 against the Australian Dollar and 2.1630 against the New Zealand Dollar.

- We expect a range today in the GBP/AUD rate of 1.7200 to 1.7400

:: New Zealand Dollar: The New Zealand Dollar opens higher today at 0.7433 after yesterday's announcement of a third monthly increase in local house prices provided evidence to traders the economy is emerging from recession. The kiwi rallied sharply to an intraday high on Monday of US74 cents before steadying around the 0.7380 area. There is no major economic data due for release early this week and the local unit continues to consolidate upon its recent gains on the back of weak overseas data, higher interest rates and firm commodity prices.

- We expect a range today in the NZD/USD rate of 0.7360 to 0.7460

:: Majors: The Greenback is down against the EURO (1.4517), Pound (1.6111) and Japanese Yen (92.07) as the market continues to digest Friday's unemployment numbers and what it means to the US recovery story. Adding to the EURO's strength last night was the French Industrial Production number for November which indicated a surprise move up to 1.1% with the previous reading being -0.6% well above market expectations. In addition to this, comments from ECB Governing Council member Ewald Nowotny in Basel overnight that the Euro Zone economy would grow anywhere from 0.1% to 1.5% helped the EURO hold above the 1.45 level. The corporate earnings season has kicked off in the US and this coupled with some fairly top tier data (Retail Sales on Thursday and Friday's CPI) does open the door for some volatile trading across the globe.

:: Data Releases: