Here is what you need to know on Tuesday, June 18:
The Australian Dollar (AUD) stays resilient against its major rivals early Tuesday as markets assess the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) policy announcements and Governor Michele Bullock's comments. ZEW Survey for Germany and the Eurozone will be featured in the European economic docket. Later in the day, Retail Sales and Industrial Production data from the US will be watched closely by market participants.
Following the conclusion of its June policy meeting on Tuesday, the RBA board members decided to keep the Official Cash Rate (OCR) unchanged at 4.35%, as widely expected. "Inflation is easing but has been doing so more slowly than previously expected and it remains high," the RBA noted in its policy statement and added that they expect that it will be some time before inflation is sustainably in the target range. In the post-meeting press conference, Governor Bullock said that policymakers discussed whether to hike rates at the meeting and said that they wanted to make a point that they are alert to upside risks to inflation. AUD/USD edged higher following the RBA event and was last seen rising 0.3% on the day at 0.6630.
Bullock Speech: RBA Governor speaks on interest outlook after standing pat.
Following a bullish start to the week, the US Dollar (USD) struggled to find demand in the second half of the day on Monday. As Wall Street's main indexes pushed higher after the opening bell, the USD Index turned south and closed the day in negative territory. US stock index futures trade marginally higher in the early European morning and the USD Index fluctuates in a tight channel below 105.50. Meanwhile, the benchmark 10-year US Treasury bond yield holds steady slightly below 4.3% after rising more than 1% on Monday.
US Dollar PRICE This week
The table below shows the percentage change of US Dollar (USD) against listed major currencies this week. US Dollar was the weakest against the Euro.
| USD | EUR | GBP | JPY | CAD | AUD | NZD | CHF | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| USD | -0.26% | -0.10% | 0.38% | -0.03% | -0.21% | 0.24% | -0.21% | |
| EUR | 0.26% | 0.18% | 0.68% | 0.23% | -0.04% | 0.54% | 0.05% | |
| GBP | 0.10% | -0.18% | 0.58% | 0.05% | -0.23% | 0.33% | -0.10% | |
| JPY | -0.38% | -0.68% | -0.58% | -0.30% | -0.59% | 0.00% | -0.53% | |
| CAD | 0.03% | -0.23% | -0.05% | 0.30% | -0.24% | 0.27% | -0.16% | |
| AUD | 0.21% | 0.04% | 0.23% | 0.59% | 0.24% | 0.64% | 0.13% | |
| NZD | -0.24% | -0.54% | -0.33% | 0.00% | -0.27% | -0.64% | -0.44% | |
| CHF | 0.21% | -0.05% | 0.10% | 0.53% | 0.16% | -0.13% | 0.44% |
The heat map shows percentage changes of major currencies against each other. The base currency is picked from the left column, while the quote currency is picked from the top row. For example, if you pick the US Dollar from the left column and move along the horizontal line to the Japanese Yen, the percentage change displayed in the box will represent USD (base)/JPY (quote).
The Bank of Japan (BoJ) Governor Kazuo Ueda said on Tuesday that there is a chance that the Japanese central bank could raise interest rates at the July meeting, depending on economic, price and financial data and information available at the time. These comments, however, failed to provide a boost to the Japanese Yen. At the time of press, USD/JPY was trading in positive territory at around 158.00.
EUR/USD benefited from the selling pressure surrounding the USD and registered modest gains on Monday. In the European morning on Tuesday, the pair stays in a consolidation phase slightly below 1.0750.
Following Friday's sharp decline, GBP/USD edged higher on Monday. The pair moves up and down in a narrow channel at around 1.2700 early Tuesday.
Gold lost its traction and closed in the red on Monday, pressured by rising US T-bond yields. XAU/USD holds steady near $2,320 in the European morning.
