AUD/USD has returned to its losing ways in the Wednesday session. Currently, the pair is trading at 0.6917, down 0.40% on the day. On the fundamentals front, Australian Wage Price Index remained pegged at 0.5%, shy of the estimate of 0.6%. In the U.S., the markets are braced for soft consumer spending numbers. Retail sales is projected slow to 0.2%, down from 1.6% in the previous release. Core retail sales is projected to drop to 0.7%, compared to 1.2% in March. Thursday will be busy, as the U.S. posts building permits, unemployment claims and the Philly Fed Manufacturing Index.
It’s been a rough week for the Australian dollar, which has slipped 1.2% and continues to set new lows in 2019. The currency sagged on Monday after the U.S. slapped new tariffs on some $200 billion in Chinese goods, with China quickly retaliating with tariffs on $60 billion in U.S. products. There was more bad news out of China on Wednesday, as industrial production and retail sales missed expectations. Industrial production fell to 5.4% in April, well short of the estimate of 6.5%. This reading dropped from 8.5% a month earlier. Retail sales also slipped to 7.2%, down from 8.7% in March. This was much lower than the forecast of 8.6%. The Aussie is sensitive to Chinese data, as China is Australia’s number one trading partner. AUD/USD has posted four straight losing weeks and the pair remains under strong pressure this week.
