Good News for Australian Dollar in Forex Markets Following Upbeat Data

The Australian dollar was one of the clear victors in forex market trading on Tuesday and into Wednesday.

The currency managed to reach a two-month high, and it roundly defeated other currencies in a wide range of pairs.

In its pair with the US dollar, for example, it was up by 0.2% to $0.7190.

It also managed to reach $0.7206 in this pair at one stage, which represented its best performance since the middle of February.

In its pair with the Japanese yen, it hit 80.71, which is its best performance in four months.

The Aussie’s positive performance came in large part as a result of positive data releases from China. According to figures, the Chinese economy expanded by 6.4% in the first three months of 2019.

The Chinese and Australian economies are closely connected, and China is the most important trading partner of Australia.

In other economies, the single European currency went up by a fifth of a percentage point in the EUR/USD pair and reached $1.1300 at one stage.

The US dollar index, which assesses how the greenback is performing compared to other major currencies from around the world, went down by 0.1% and reached 96.976.

With the central point of the trading week now here, it’s time to think about what’s coming up as the second half of the week gets started.

Today (Wednesday) there will be a number of key data releases. Retail price index information for the month of March is due at 8.30am GMT and is expected to show a month on month change from +0.7% to -0.2%.

At the same time, British consumer price index information for March is due. It is expected that a slight year on year drop will take place here, and the metric will fall from 1.9% to 1.6%.

US trade balance information for February is expected at 12.30pm GMT. This is forecast to show a change from $-51.1 billion to $-53.7 billion.

The Bank of Canada’s core consumer price index for March is out at 12.30pm GMT as well. On a month on month basis, this was last recorded at 0.7%.

The US Federal Reserve will release its Beige Book report at 6pm GMT. This report curates information on economic performance from the Federal Reserve’s network across the US.

On Thursday, Australian employment change information for March is due out at 1.30am GMT. It is expected to show a change from 4,600 to 12,000.

The overall Australian unemployment rate for March will also be out at that time. This is expected to show a change from 4.9% to 5%.

Preliminary Markit manufacturing data for April will be out of Germany at 7.30am GMT. This is forecast by analysts to show a change from 44.1 to 45.

A year on year change from 4% to 4.6% is expected at 8.30am GMT when British retail sales information for March is due out.

Over in the US, retail sales information for March will be out at 12.30pm GMT. This is expected to show a month on month change from -0.2% to +0.7%.