All up this was a fairly standard set of minutes from the RBA, acknowledging Australia’s economic strength but fretting that those indicators perhaps most important to policy setting continue to underperform. And to be sure the Australian economy is not without its bright spots. Employment growth is very strong, exports are too. However, wages, consumer prices and domestic consumption remain weak and Australians are heavily indebted. The minutes only added to the already very widespread impression in financial markets that Australian rates are going nowhere fast, and so a knock for the Australian Dollar was unsurprising.
In the US session Existing Home Sales figures were released. Total existing-home sales which are completed transactions that include single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops, increased 2.0 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.48 million in October from a downwardly revised 5.37 million in September. After last month's increase, sales are at their strongest pace since June (5.51 million), but still remain 0.9 percent below a year ago. Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, says sales activity in October picked up for the second straight month, with increases in all four major regions.
Tomorrow, from Australia, Construction Work Done data will be published. Analysts predict decline by 2.1%. In the US session Durable Goods Orders and Unemployment Claims figures will be published. Unemployment Claims are expected to decrease to 241,000, while Durable Goods Orders should increase by 0.4%.
Figures to watch:
Unemployment Claims (Wednesday 14:30)
Durable Goods Orders (Wednesday 14:30)
