Market Focus

On Tuesday, 06.02.2018, the strongest news was the RBA’s decision on the interest rate. As expected, the interest rate was maintained at 1.5%, which put pressure on the Australian dollar. The decision to keep the interest rate unchanged was made against the backdrop of uncertainty about the forecast of household consumption. Revenues are growing at a slow pace, and the debt is at a high level.

Later it is worth paying attention to the data on the number of open vacancies in the labor market of JOLTS USA. This indicator gives an opportunity to assess the state of the labor market and plays a significant role in assessing the situation on it. The indicator has a less strong impact on the movement of the US dollar, as it is published later than Non Farm Payroll.

According to the forecast, in December the indicator increased to 5.999M, against the November value of 5.879M. If the forecast is confirmed, the US dollar will receive some support and one should expect its growth in the range of 20-30 points against the basket of currencies.

Alexander Sivtsov