Events that marked the week:
There were no major data releases from Australia whole week. Aussie was mostly affected by iron ore and gold prices. This is usually period of year when gold and silver prices are in an uptrend due to Christmas jewelry shopping. On the other hand, iron ore prices are still in decline, with weaker demand coming from China. RBA governor Glenn Stevens stated recently that Australian dollar should fall, or at least that it would be desirable if it fell, to around 75 US cents, so this is adding additional pressure on Aussie.
Furthermore, Australian labour market is still instable, GDP growth in third quarter was much weaker than it was expected with announcements of further slowdown by the end of the year. On the contrary, Fed gave positive outlook on US economy last week, saying that labour market is being stable, though there are some inflation concerns left. What we can expect is that Fed is about to raise its interest rates in the first part of 2015.
This week markets will be looking at:
Manufacturing PMI (Thursday 2:00)
HSBC Final Manufacturing PMI (Friday 3:45)
