It’s RBA so eyes are on the Australian dollar as it traded to the lowest since November 17 today.
A fair bit of that is US dollar outperformance but the Aussie is also lower this year against the euro and Canadian dollar, while only eeking out a tiny gain against the struggling yen.
The drag is obvious — China. Everything that touches China is struggling right now on dismal Shanghai equity returns. soft commodity demand and fears that Beijing isn’t doing enough to boost demand. At some point that will change but can anyone be bullish on the Australian dollar without that?
Normally the answer would be no but Australia has lots going for it. We will find out how well consumers are holding up with the Q4 retail sales report at 1930 GMT. Then it’s onto the RBA at 2230 GMT.