Daily Forecast - 6/12/2009

:: Australian Dollar: The Australian Dollar opens largely unchanged against the greenback on Wednesday at 0.9090. The Aussie held onto its recent gains throughout the local session after new home sales data for November showed a small rise of 0.3 per cent - the first rise in 3 months, helping the currency rally towards 0.9150. Recent strong rises in commodity prices and equity markets are also serving to underpin the currency. During overnight trade, buying of the Aussie against the Euro pushed the unit to a high of 0.9173. At time of writing, the AUD/EUR cross rate is trading at two-year highs just above 0.6300.

- We expect a range today in the AUD/USD rate of 0.9040 to 0.9160

:: Great Britain Pound: Pound Sterling opens weaker against both the Euro (0.8980) and the U.S. Dollar (1.5980) as investors exercise caution ahead of Thursday's Bank of England policy meeting where its asset-purchase plan may be extended. During overnight trade the pound drifted from a high of 1.6152 down to 1.5964 and is likely to remain under pressure near-term. Meanwhile, the pound has lost further ground against both the Australian Dollar (1.7560) and the New Zealand Dollar (2.1800).

- We expect a range today in the GBP/AUD rate of 1.7500 to 1.7620

:: New Zealand Dollar: The New Zealand Dollar opens largely unchanged against its U.S. counterpart on Wednesday at 0.7325. The domestic trading session had another holiday look about it as the kiwi traded in a fairly narrow band (0.7326 - 0.7360). The currency came to life during the European time zone and moved to a 24-hour high of 0.7389. There is no local economic data due for release today leaving the currency to take its near-term direction from movements in commodity prices and regional equity markets.

- We expect a range today in the NZD/USD rate of 0.7280 to 0.7375

:: Majors: The Euro opens weaker against the greenback today at 1.4360 as budget deficit concerns in Greece continue to weigh on the 15-nation currency. The Euro moved steadily lower overnight from 1.4483 as news emerged that European Central Bank officials are set to visit Athens this week to discuss plans to cut the deficit. Meanwhile, the big dollar fell to a two-week low of 91.24 against the Japanese Yen overnight as a report in the United States showed sales of existing homes dropped in November by 16 per cent after a revised fall of 3.9 per cent in October.

:: Data Releases: