DAILY CURRENCY OUTLOOK

* Aussie fails to push on despite strong local job numbers

* USD bounces back on better than expected US Retail Sales

* US mid-term elections confirm split – Democrats hold Senate. Republicans take House of Reps

For most of the week, the AUD has been riding the wave (due largely to softer US inflation numbers released late last week), and on Wednesday night, AEDT hit a 2-month high of 0.6792. However, better than expected US Retail Sales for October showed an increase of 1.3% month on month versus 0.9% expected, and the highest growth in 8 months saw the wave die out as investors jumped back on the USD. With US inflation running at close to 8%, the US Federal Reserve will be nervous their aggressive rate hikes are not doing enough, as evidenced by the strong retail sales. This caused markets to buy up the greenback, thinking any pause in the Fed’s aggressive stance next month may not eventuate. As such, the Aussie suffered and fell nearly ¾ cents. Yesterday morning’s better than expected local job numbers for October of 32K new jobs added versus 15K expected and a fall in the unemployment rate to 3.4% – the lowest level since August 1974 saw the Aussie bounce a little to 0.6740, but this was short lived as the USD continued to attract buyers. Next week with little local data, expect the Aussie to be driven by events in the US…. sound familiar!