Forex Today: AUD Falls as RBA Drops Yield Curve Control

The Reserve Bank of Australia left its monetary policies unchanged with the exception of dropping the yield curve control component of its monetary policy, meaning that a more hawkish, somewhat tighter monetary policy will now be applied. Counter-intuitively, the AUD fell following this release.

The main US stock index, the S&P 500, traded yesterday at an all-time high above 4620. It is likely that the price will continue to rise over the coming days.

The two major agricultural commodities, wheat and corn, moved firmly higher yesterday, with wheat closing strongly at a 4-year high price.

The Forex market is relatively quiet, with currency crosses showing the most movement as the USD trades relatively quietly with a bullish undertone. The euro is the strongest currency right now, while the AUD is the weakest, but this is likely to be a short-term flow.

Later today there will be a release of New Zealand employment data.

It will be a public holiday in Japan tomorrow.

Last week saw the second consecutive global weekly rise in new confirmed coronavirus cases after two months in which cases fell steadily.

It is estimated that 49.5% of the world’s population has received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccination.

Total confirmed new coronavirus cases worldwide stand at over 247.8 million with an average case fatality rate of 2.03%.

The rate of new coronavirus infections appears to now be increasing most quickly in Austria, Barbados, Belgium, Bulgaria, Chile, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Estonia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, South Korea, Laos, Latvia, Lithuania, Montenegro, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Russia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, and the Ukraine.