Australia Q3 GDP misses, comes in at 0.3%

Joshua Gibson FXStreet

Australia's Gross Domestic Product for 2018's third quarter widely missed market forecasts of 0.6%, clocking in at just 0.3% versus the previous quarter's showing of 0.9%.

Key highlights (via ABS)

The Australian economy grew 0.3 per cent in seasonally adjusted chain volume terms in the September quarter 2018, according to figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) today.

ABS Chief Economist, Bruce Hockman, said: “The household sector drove domestic growth with increased consumption supported by moderate rises in household income.”

Household consumption rose 0.3 per cent driven by non-discretionary spending on food and housing. Spending on discretionary items slowed during the quarter. Household gross disposable income continued to grow at a slow pace due to moderate growth in household income being partially offset by a rise in income tax payable.
The subdued growth in gross disposable income coupled with an increase in household consumption resulted in the household saving ratio declining to 2.4 per cent in the September quarter. This is the lowest saving rate since December 2007.

Author

Joshua Gibson

FXStreet

Joshua joins the FXStreet team as an Economics and Finance double major from Vancouver Island University with twelve years' experience as an independent trader focusing on technical analysis.

EUR/USD trims some losses, back to 1.1770

EUR/USD remains on the back foot on Thursday, managing to regain some composure and reclaim the 1.1770 region after bottoming out near 1.1740 earlier in the day. The pair’s daily retracement comes as the US Dollar extends its recovery, buoyed by another round of solid US data that has reinforced the Greenback’s underlying strength and kept buyers firmly in control.

GBP/USD bounces off monthly lows near 1.3430

GBP/USD is sliding in tandem with its risk-sensitive peers, drifting back towards the 1.3430 area, its lowest levels in the month. The move reflects a firmer Greenback, supported by another round of solid US data and a somewhat divided FOMC Minutes.

Gold surrenders some gains, back below $5,000

Gold is giving away part of its earlier gains on Thursday, receding to the sub-$5,000 region per troy ounce. The precious metal is finding support from renewed geopolitical tensions in the Middle East and declining US Treasury yields across the curve in a context of further advance in the Greenback.

Ripple slips toward $1.40 despite SG-FORGE tapping protocol for EUR CoinVertible

XRP extends its decline, nearing $1.40 support, as risk appetite fades in the broader market. SG-FORGE’s EUR CoinVertible launches on the XRP Ledger, leveraging the blockchain’s scalability, speed, security, and decentralization.

Hawkish Fed minutes and a market finding its footing

It was green across the board for US Stock market indexes at the close on Wednesday, with most S&P 500 names ending higher, adding 38 points (0.6%) to 6,881 overall. At the GICS sector level, energy led gains, followed by technology and consumer discretionary, while utilities and real estate posted the largest losses.

Injective token surges over 13% following the approval of the mainnet upgrade proposal

Injective price rallies over 13% on Thursday after the network confirmed the approval of its IIP-619 proposal. The green light for the mainnet upgrade has boosted traders’ sentiment, as the upgrade aims to scale Injective’s real-time Ethereum Virtual Machine architecture and enhance its capabilities to support next-generation payments.