Currency Update: The AUD continued to range trade overnight ahead of the Reserve Bank of Australia's February cash rate decision today
Currency Update: The AUD continued to range trade overnight ahead of the Reserve Bank of Australia's February cash rate decision today. The AUD briefly broke back above USD0.8800, reaching USD0.8834. US manufacturing sector growth slowed sharply, dropping to 51.3 from 56.5 in January. However the AUD's rally was brief and the local currency settled back below USD0.8800 ahead of today's RBA meeting. It is widely expected to leave the cash rate on hold at 2.5%. It was a mixed night for currency markets overnight, while equity markets didn't perform well at all. The Dow was down -3.3pts to 15,396. European equities also retreated at the end of their session; however the EUR did benefit off the back of the better than expected manufacturing data throughout he Euro-zone, while the GBP failed to gain momentum, despite a solid ISM reading released in the UK.