* Aussie recovers strongly over the weekend
* USD weakness on speculation Fed considering smaller hike in Dec
* Boris Johnson rules out challenge for UK Leadership
The AUD/USD staged a strong recovery over the weekend opening this morning up almost 1½ cents on Fridays close. As has been the tale over the last 2-3 months it was the USD story more than anything local. Reports out of Wall Street Friday afternoon New York time suggested several US Fed Reserve officials are concerned about the pace of the recent rate hikes (there have been 4 consecutive hikes of 75 basis points since May and a further 75 basis points is virtually priced in when the US Fed meet next week) that they are open to discussing a smaller hike in December. This saw the USD fall sharply quickly against most major currencies including the Aussie. Within the space of 3 hours late Friday/early Saturday the AUD/USD rallied from 0.6210 to 0.6380 and has opened this morning around this level. Against all other major pairs the AUD has opened slightly higher except verses the Kiwi. (probably due to the cricket!)
With no data of note today and tomorrow all eyes will turn to our Federal Budget release tomorrow night, CPI Wednesday and US Durable Goods and GDP Thursday.
| Economic Calendar: Mon 24th – Fri 28th October | |||||
| Day | Time | Event | Impact | Consensus | Previous |
| Mon | 7:30pm | GBP Purchasing Managers Index (Services) (Oct) | HIGH | 49 | 50 |
| Tues | 12:45am | USD Purchasing Managers Index (Manuf.) (Oct) | Med | 51.2 | 52 |
| 7:30pm | AUD Federal Budget | HIGH | Report | ||
| Wed | midnight | USD Housing Price Index (MoM) (Aug) | Med | -0.3% | -0.6% |
| 11:30am | AUD Consumer Price Index (QoQ) (Q3) | HIGH | 1.5% | 1.8% | |
| 11:30am | AUD Monthly Consumer Price Index (YoY) (Sep) | HIGH | 6.8% | ||
| Thu | 1am | USD New Home Sales (MoM) (Sep) | Med | 0.59M | 0.685M |
| 11:15pm | EUR ECB rate on main refinancing (rate decision) | HIGH | 2% | 1.25% | |
| 11:30pm | USD Durable Goods Orders (Sep) | HIGH | 0.5% | -0.2% | |
| 11:30pm | USD Gross Domestic Product Annualized (Q3) | HIGH | 2.4% | -0.6% | |
| 11:30pm | USD Jobless Claims (Oct 21) | Med | 225K | 214K | |
| Fri | 2pm | JPY BoJ Interest Rate Decision | HIGH | -0.1% | -0.1% |