The Australian dollar is virtually unchanged despite the release of stronger than expected Chinese trade data.

At 1700 AEST, the Australian dollar was trading at 103.03 US cents, up from 103.05 US cents at the last local close on Thursday. It was also buying 78.7 euro cents, 64.9 pence and 83.7 yen.

Commonwealth Bank currency strategist Peter Dragicevich said the currency rallied early on Tuesday afternoon following the release of stronger than expected Chinese trade data.

Official Chinese data showed the country recorded a trade surplus of $US5.35 billion in March, a stark turnaround from a $US31.48 billion deficit in February. [Read more...]

U.S. personal consumption expenditure (PCE) rose for the fifth straight month in February. Core PCE climbed by 0.1 percent in February from the previous month, after rising by 0.2 percent in January. On a yearly basis, core PCE rose by 1.9 percent, unchanged from the pace seen in January. These figures were in line with the consensus forecasts of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News.

According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, personal income rose by $28.2 billion, or 0.2 percent, while disposable personal income (DPI) increased by $18.9 billion, or 0.2 percent, in February. January’s personal income estimates were revised downwards to 0.2 percent from 0.3 percent. Meanwhile, personal spending soared by $86.0 billion, or 0.8 percent, notably higher than the 0.4 percent gain seen in the previous month. Economists had called for a 0.4 percent increase in personal income and a 0.6 percent gain in personal spending. [Read more...]

Markets were steady Monday ahead of a meeting of European finance ministers that is expected to pave the way for a second massive bailout for Greece that will prevent the debt-ridden country’s imminent bankruptcy.

Ministers from the 17 countries that use the euro are meeting later and Greece will again be at the top of the agenda. After last week’s broadly successful bond swap with its private creditors, Greece will hope that it has met the conditions its partners in the eurozone attached before they finally rubber-stamp the country’s euro130 billion ($171.48 billion) financial rescue.

Though the bond swap, which shaves some euro105 billion ($138 billion) off Greece’s euro368 billion ($485 billion) debt mountain, is likely to give Greece some breathing-room to enact another round of austerity and reform measures, many analysts think the country’s debt remains unsustainable. [Read more...]

The dollar strengthened, touching a 10-month high versus the yen, as better-than-forecast payrolls damped Federal Reserve monetary stimulus speculation.

The euro fell for a second week against the dollar as Greece’s use of collective-action clauses forcing investors to take losses under the nation’s debt restructuring will trigger payouts on $3 billion of default insurance. Mexico’s peso and Canada’s dollar rose against their 16 most-traded currencies amid stronger economic data for their biggest trading partner. The Dollar Index reached three-week high before the central bank holds and policy meeting March 13.

“The payrolls news sets the stage for the Fed finding it increasingly difficult to talk about further quantitative easing,” said Shahab Jalinoos, a senior currency strategist in Stamford, Connecticut, for UBS AG. “A trend of stronger dollar seems to be establishing itself. The currencies that are bucking that trend seem to be Mexican peso and Canadian dollar, which people see as better variations of the U.S. dollar.” [Read more...]