A stellar week for the Swiss franc and anticipation builds for the Antipodean currencies

The Swiss franc had a stellar start to the week, with manufacturing data coming out better than expected; following previous month’s contraction, this month’s figure of 50.7 indicates that the sector is expanding once more. Yet more good news for the Swiss, as yearly retail sales showed good improvement with growth at 0.2%.

Yesterday we saw Australian Building Approvals data come out better than expected at 2.2%. Despite this positive data, the Australian dollar remained largely unchanged, due to the anticipation surrounding today’s interest rate announcement by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA). Although the rate was expected to remain at 2.0%, poor Consumer Price Index (CPI) data last week worried markets into thinking that we could see a shock rate cut – this was not the case and the Australian dollar has appreciated against sterling this morning.

Just across the water, the New Zealand dollar is also set for a busy day, following the release of various unemployment data.

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