:: Australian Dollar: The Aussie dollar declined rapidly on Friday as concern in Asia over another blow out in credit spreads from a possible Dubai World debt default rocked the high yielders. After opening on Friday near 0.9150 the AUD momentarily hit a low around 0.8950 in early European trade before finding some support to settle back above the 90 cent handle. This morning sees the Aussie dollar exchanging around 0.9070 ahead of a big week in local data releases with the highlight being tomorrows RBA interest rate decision and Thursdays Retail Sales.

- We expect a range today in the AUD/USD rate of 0.9030 to 0.9130

:: Great Britain Pound: With no U.K economic data released on Friday the Pound Sterling traded lower against the Greenback dipping to 1.6275 amidst concerns surrounding some of the large U.K banks with exposure to Dubai World. Support held however as U.S equity markets pared back some massive early losses stabilising the move and triggering some GBP/USD short covering. This morning sees the Pound open the week at 1.6470 and 1.8140 against the U.S and Australian dollars respectively with U.K housing data scheduled early in the week likely to provide some further direction for the GBP.

- We expect a range today in the GBP/AUD rate of 1.8085 to 1.8125

:: New Zealand Dollar: The Kiwi began its decline from 0.7150 on Friday morning following some disappointing October Trade balance data which saw both import and export volumes drop. The move then gathered pace with global investors fleeing riskier assets like the Kiwi and Aussie dollars eventually finding a low in European trade around 0.7020. U.S traders returned from Thursday's Thanksgiving holiday happy to snap up some cheap Euro against both the Greenback and Yen which helped the NZD/USD finish back near the 71 cent handle.

- We expect a range today in the NZD/USD rate of 0.7040 to 0.7140

:: Majors: Early offshore markets continued the Asian theme selling EUR/USD amidst concerns that debt problems out of the Middle East, specifically Dubai, could spread with several major banks and other institutions at risk of severe financial loss. The Euro fell to a low of 1.4825 against the Greenback with several Euro-Zone confidence surveys coming in at or below market expectations only adding to the selling pressure. With investors retreating from risky assets USD/JPY also fell on Friday exchanging as low as 84.80 in Asia following more downside in EUR/JPY. U.S markets returned from the Thanksgiving holiday in a negative mood with North American equities down over 2% in early trade. With no U.S economic data scheduled for release direction came from momentum traders and movements on interest rate markets which reversed some of the earlier moves taking the big dollar back to 86.55 and 1.4965 against the Yen and Euro respectively.

:: Data Releases:

  • AUD: Oct HIA New Home Sales, Q3 Inventories & TD Securities Nov Inflation guage
  • NZD: Oct Building Permits & Oct Visitor Arrivals
  • USD: Nov Chicago PMI
  • GBP: Nov Nationwide House Prices Nov Hometrack Housing Survey & Nov GfK Consumer Confidence
  • EUR: Oct German Retail Sales & Nov CPI Estimate
  • JPY: Oct Prelim Industrial Production & Oct Housing Starts
  • CAD: Sep Retail Sales
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