Events that marked the week:
There were no data releases from Australia last week, with trading mostly depending on technical aspects. For the first time in years Glenn Stevens probably won’t be asking for a weaker Australian dollar for Christmas. “I suspect Governor Stevens will be quietly pleased to see the fall in the Aussie after the FOMC, given how many times he must have been warned that the hike was factored into the Aussie already,” said Sean Callow, a foreign-exchange strategist in Sydney at Westpac Banking Corp.
The AUD was supported by a jump in iron ore prices as well as weakness in the US dollar which is up in the Asian session but down on the week.
The iron ore price is continuing to defy dire forecasts in the lead-up to Christmas, with the rally extending to seven sessions. An 8 per cent recovery over the past week has seen the commodity rise above $40 a tonne for the first time since December 5, though it remains more than 40 per cent down on the year.
Elsewhere, China's economy will grow at the slackest pace since 1990 next year, and the yuan will weaken by 4% against the dollar, economists in a Nikkei Inc./NQN survey predicted. Real gross domestic product is seen expanding 6.4% in 2016, the lowest since the year after the deadly Tiananmen Square protests, according to the average forecast of 22 economists responding to the recent write-in survey.
This week markets will be looking at:
Private Sector Credit (Thursday 1:30)
China's Manufacturing PMI (Friday 2:00)
