By: Barbara Zigah
In Asian trading today, the Aussie rose following the release of positive jobs data from Australia and a report on surging Chinese exports, both of which helped boost high yielding currencies, including the Euro. Against the U.S. Dollar, the Australian currency gained nearly 1.5% at one point in the session; as reported at 3:11 p.m. (JST) in Tokyo, the Australian Dollar was slightly off that earlier day’s high, trading at $0.8365, an increase of 1.2%. New jobs data from Australia for the month of May was significantly better at 26,900 than experts’ predictions of 17,500; the jobless rate also fell by 5.2%, again more than predicted. All of this suggests that wage pressure may escalate, increasing the likelihood of higher interest rates in the near future.
China also confirmed that their exports in May rose nearly 50% from the same period a year ago, while imports were also up to 48.3%. Those increases, coupled with the positive economic news from Australia, may help allay investor worries that the Euro-zone troubles are putting heavy pressure on the global economy’s overall health.
The positive Chinese news and comments from Dai Xianglong, the chairman of National Security Fund of China, helped the Euro as well; he said that in his opinion the common currency would stabilize, albeit gradually, but that the fiscal deficit in the U.S. economy was a big concern. Versus the U.S. Dollar, the Euro gained .7% to trade near $1.2059; earlier in the session it had traded up to $1.2064. Since Monday of this week, when the Euro had struck a 4-year low, the common currency has risen nearly 1.5% on the EBS trading platform.