Advanced Search

Share Coverage



Category: Stockmarket / Currency / Futures / Markets

Australian dollar keeps falling, Wall St rises

Thursday, 28 Apr 2016 06:43:14 | Rebecca Hyam

The Australian dollar has fallen around two per cent on CPI deflation. (Giulio Saggin: ABC News)

The Australian dollar continued to tumble overnight, as speculation firmed that the Reserve Bank would cut official interest rates at its board meeting next Tuesday.

The local currency has suffered a slump of more than 2 per cent since figures were released yesterday showing consumer prices went backwards in the first quarter - the first quarterly fall since December 2008.

It slid from 77.6 to 76.15 US cents yesterday, extending those losses to 75.71 US cents overnight.

At 7:45am (AEST) the Australian dollar was worth 75.97 US cents.

On the cross-rates it was buying 67.08 euro cents, 52.25 British pence, 84.67 Japanese yen and $NZ1.09.

Before the inflation data was published, the market was pricing in an 11 per cent chance of an interest rate cut at the RBA's May board meeting.

That jumped to 50 per cent once the figures came out, and has since climbed to 57 per cent.

The Reserve Bank last cut interest rates in May 2015, to the historically low level of 2 per cent.

US stocks rise, ASX set for strong rebound

Elsewhere on financial markets, US stocks increased slightly overnight, after the Federal Reserve left interest rates on hold and provided scant information on when its next rate rise might be.

The Federal Reserve next meets in the middle of June and, while the US labour market continues to gain strength, inflation remains below the Fed's target of 2 per cent.

A Reuters poll of economists forecasts two interest rate increases this year, but CME Group's FedWatch tool shows traders were not expecting a rate rise until at least September.

Meanwhile, technology stocks came under pressure overnight, after Apple slumped more than 6 per cent, following its first fall in revenue in a decade.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.3 per cent to close at 18,041.

The S&P 500 Index edged 3 points higher to 2,095 and the Nasdaq ended 0.5 per cent lower at 4,863.

European markets made modest gains - in London, the FTSE 100 Index closed up 0.6 per cent at 6,319.

Australian shares were set to rise at the open, with the ASX SPI 200 up 1 per cent to 5,206.

West Texas crude oil had strengthened to $US45.24 a barrel, the price of a barrel of Tapis was slightly lower at $US46.66, and spot gold had edged up to $US1,245.70 an ounce.

AustraliaPlus


 

Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.

沪公网安备 31010602000204号

Email this to your friend