AUD opens slightly above US78¢

AUD - Australian Dollar

The Australian Dollar closed the week at 0.7841, not far from a multi-week peak at 0.7862, off the back of Friday’s disappointing US employment figures which put the greenback in sell-off mode. Higher gold prices also provided some additional support for the Aussie. On Friday we saw the release of AIG Performance of Services Index surged to 61 in April from 58.7 in the previous month. The Reserve Bank of Australia released the Statement on Monetary Policy for the month of May 2021. Highlighting they foresee strong global growth is expected this year and next as the global economy recovers from the pandemic. Vaccine supply is increasing, which is allowing some economies to ease restrictions and open up.

Looking ahead this week and on Monday we will see the release of the final reading of March Retail Sales, foreseen unchanged from preliminary estimates at 1.4%, and April NAB’s Business Confidence, previously at 15. From a technical perspective, the AUD/USD pair is currently trading at 0.7826. We continue to expect support to hold on moves approaching 0.7770 while now any upward push will likely meet resistance around 0.7860.

Key Movers

On Friday US President Joe Biden defended his big-spending plans to kick-start the US economy after a disappointing jobs report showed the number of Americans entering the workforce fell well below expectations. The US economy added just 266,000 jobs in April, well below economists’ expectations that around 1 million jobs would be created as vaccination numbers soar and COVID-19 cases decline. The US unemployment rate remains essentially unchanged at 6.1 percent, well above the rate of 3.5 per cent when the pandemic hit.

Reports over the weekend we see the worrying rise in mucormycosis fungal infection in recovered COVID patients in India as the country battles the second wave of the coronavirus. Fifty mucormycosis patients are being treated at our hospital and 60 more are awaiting treatment. They all came to our hospital in the last three weeks and have recovered from COVID-19 recently. Although the daily infection numbers in India dipped below 400,000 recently, they have risen again, with a new record on May 6 of more than 414,000 infections. On the same day, the country recorded 3920 deaths.

Expected Ranges

AUD/USD: 0.7700 - 0.7900 ▲

AUD/EUR: 0.6350 - 0.6550 ▲

GBP/AUD: 1.7700– 1.7900 ▼

AUD/NZD: 1.0650 - 1.0850 ▲

AUD/CAD: 0.9400 - 0.9600 ▼