China Data Weighs on Aussie and Kiwi Dollars

By: DailyForex.com

As the first full trading week of the year dawned in Asia, disappointing economic news from China suggested that the country’s struggles will continue in 2016. Several PMI reports for China, most recently the Caixin Manufacturing report for December, showed a reading once again well into contractionary territory. This time, the reading came in at 48.2, falling from 48.6 in November and missing analysts’ expectations of a slight rise to 49.0. That news helped to push the antipodean currencies lower while boosting safe haven pairs.

As reported at 11:16 am (GMT) in London, the AUD/USD was trading at 0.7218, down 0.95%; the pair ranged from a low of $0.7197 to a high of $0.7297 in today’s trading. Meanwhile the NZD/USD was also lower, trading at $0.6772, a loss of 1.1%; the pair ranged from $0.6746 to $0.6834. The USD/JPY, one of the safe haven pairs, was trading at 119.01 Yen, down 1.08%; the pair has ranged from 118.7000 Yen to 120.4645 Yen in today’s trading.

Japanese Yen Pushed Higher Despite BOJ

What is currently worrying some traders, according to one FX analyst in London, is that there is not yet a lot of volume. He believes that when volume does increase as we get further into the trading week, those numbers could become “very interesting.” As a result, the Japanese Yen is likely to continue to be pushed higher, despite the efforts of the Bank of Japan and the Japanese government to create a weaker currency.

Barbara Zigah

After working on Wall Street, Barb began her second career as a freelance writer at Daily Forex, where the CEO recognized fresh, untapped potential and was willing to give her a try. She’s never looked back. Since then, she’s worked steadily as a freelance writer and editor in the financial services and Forex-related industry.