Currency Update: The AUD has opened up around the .9000 level this morning

Currency Update: The AUD has opened up around the .9000 level this morning. US Treasury securities that are held at the US Federal Reserve fell by USD104bn for the week ending March 12. Locally the highlights to keep in mind are the release of RBA minutes on Tuesday and RBA's Quarterly Bulletin on Thursday. We would expect the AUD to move lower in general this week. On Friday in the US, the preliminary consumer confidence figures for March saw the index retreat to 79.9 from February's level of 81.6. Producer Price Index (PPI) figures for February saw a decrease of 0.2% indicating inflation is not an issue for financial markets. Employment in the Eurozone for the last quarter (Q4 of 2013) rose 0.1%. On the weekend China officially widened the trading band width on their local currency from % to 2%.