Marketwatch APAC

Daily Insights
December 19, 2023

Market Watch AU – 20th December 2023

 

The US-dollar gained against the JPY after the Bank of Japan held rates steady following their meeting and doused any market optimism for tighter policy with a continuation of their dovish stance in accompanying statements. Against risk currencies however, the US-dollar was seen to lose ground as global stock markets enjoyed more of a December rally. This has seen another day of gains for the AUDUSD, taking it to 0.6770’s overnight, a five month high. The RBA Meeting minutes yesterday re-iterated a hawkish bank stance and underpinned the AUD gains as the divergence of US Fed and RBA policy becomes more prominent. The PBoC is also scheduled for its announcement on interest rates. From here the AUDUSD pair looks to 0.68-cents as the next resistance point and with significant gains over the last week would expect there to be a period of consolidation before this level is attempted. Support emerges at 0.6660 initially.

 

Wall Street enjoyed a broad-based rally with all 11 sectors of the S&P enjoying gains . The DJI was up +0.07%, the S&P500 gained +0.6% and the Nasdaq gained +0.7% by close.  Australian shares are expected to open the day higher and take the lead from Wall Street.

 

Gold prices held up for another day as market as investor focus is eyeing off US economic data later this week for further clues as to the direction for the US Fed on interest rates next year.

Copper prices rose on China stimulus hopes and a softer US-dollar . Iron Ore futures on the Dalian exchange rose modestly yesterday and likely to get another lift from China’s latest stimulus measures. There is some nervousness amongst traders that higher inventory levels will be a drag on prices.

Crude Oil prices continued to move higher with shipments of crude redirected through southern Africa, a more expensive route, following last week’s Red Sea  incident.

 

 

AUDUSD

Open today 0.6763

Yesterday’s Range 0.6701 / 0.6775

NZDUSD

Open today  0.6272

Yesterday’s Range 0.6207 / 0.6273

AUDNZD

Yesterday’s Range 1.0780 / 1.0805

AUDEUR

Yesterday’s Range 0.6135 / 0.6170

AUDCNH

Yesterday’s Range 4.7866 / 4.8247

AUDGBP

Yesterday’s Range 0.5288 / 0.5317

 

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Economic Calendar

:
CNY - 1-y Loan Prime Rate
:
CNY - 5-y Loan Prime Rate
:
EUR - German GfK Consumer Climate
:
EUR - German PPI m/m
:
GBP - CPI y/y
:
GBP - Core CPI y/y
:
GBP - PPI Input m/m
:
GBP - PPI Output m/m
:
GBP - RPI y/y
:
CNY - Foreign Direct Investment ytd/y
:
EUR - Current Account
:
GBP - HPI y/y
:
USD - Current Account
:
CHF - SNB Quarterly Bulletin
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CNY - CB Leading Index m/m
:
EUR - Consumer Confidence
:
USD - CB Consumer Confidence
:
USD - Existing Home Sales
:
USD - Crude Oil Inventories
:
USD - FOMC Member Goolsbee Speaks
:
CAD - BOC Summary of Deliberations

Market Indicators

Currency Pairs
Pair High Low
aud/usd 0.67746 0.6703
nzd/usd 0.62726 0.62141
aud/nzd 1.08047 1.07611
usd/jpy 144.955 142.245
usd/cad 1.34001 1.33152
eur/usd 1.09874 1.09147
gbp/usd 1.27619 1.26491
aud/eur 1.62937 1.62062
aud/jpy 97.58 95.481
aud/cny
Equities and Commodities
S&P 500 4774.1
DOW 37597.4
Nasdaq 100 16844.8
ASX200 7537.78
GOLD 2039.85
WTI 74.33

This document is for information purposes only and does not constitute any recommendation or solicitation to any person to enter into any transaction or adopt any trading strategy, nor does it constitute any prediction of likely future movements in exchange rates or prices or any representation that any such future movements will not exceed those shown on any illustration. All exchange rates and figures appearing are for illustrative purposes only. You are advised to make your own independent judgment with respect to any matter contained herein.