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Australian Dollar:  In the absence of any local data on Friday the direction of the Australian Dollar was inevitably going to take its direction from offshore events. Unsurprisingly it traded in a narrow range during Asian hours, primarily between 1.0600 and 1.0630 before the resignation of a key member of the ECB shocked the markets into a freefall. Following the reaction of the share markets the Aussie tumbled to a low of 1.0430 and has opened lower this morning, buying 1.0415 against the Greenback at time of writing. Looking to the week ahead there is little in the way of key data releases to provide the Aussie any relief. In focus today is the release of the nation’s Trade Balance however overall the Aussie looks set to trade along with international sentiment in the short-term.
 
New Zealand Dollar:  Widespread risk aversion has caused the New Zealand Dollar to pare recent gains against the Greenback falling below 82 cents after trading at intra-day highs of 0.8360 on Friday. Concerns for the Euro-Zone snowballed on Friday and the impending threat of a Greek default, in a time where differing of opinions of the ECB members are coming to light, has done little to support the commodity currency. Opening this morning near 0.8190 the absence of any local data will leave the short-term direction of the New Zealand Dollar to offshore sentiment. Against the Australian Dollar, the Kiwi has maintained recent ranges and opens this morning at 0.7860.
 
Great British Pound: Coming under a degree of downward pressure in the second half of last week, Friday’s release of PPI Input did little to help. Reporting a monthly fall of 1.9% the figure, which is a lead indicator of consumer inflation, put the Pound on the back foot early on in the session. Soon to follow was the resignation of ECB board member Juergen Stark and the shock to the markets was clear as riskier assets plummeted. Cable dropped sharply below 1.5900 and reached lows of 1.5850 during North American trade. Opening lower this morning, Sterling sits at 1.5840 however the risk adverse environment has allowed some gains to be made against its antipodean counterparts. Sitting on the 1.5200 handle against the Australian Dollar, against the Kiwi it has recovered to 1.9330.
 
Majors:  The Euro has opened the week at almost seven month lows as interest rate expectations are scaled back and concern for the debt of struggling economies grows. Also contributing to a significant share of the Euro’s losses during Friday’s offshore session was the resignation of ECB member Juergen Stark, highlighting the differences in opinions of how the Euro-crisis is being handled. After opening Friday’s trade at 1.3880 it had fallen to 1.3660 by close of markets and gapping lower this morning it has traded as low as 1.3552. With markets undoubtedly shaken the safe-haven currencies have come out on top and equities and commodities have suffered. Major banks have lead declines in the share markets and the economically troubled Greenback lost recent ground against the Japanese Yen, where it opens this morning at 77.50

Data releases:
AUD: Trade Balance
NZD: No data due for release
JPY: BSI Manufacturing Index; Monetary Policy Meeting Minutes; Tertiary Industry Activity m/m
GBP: No data due for release
EUR: Italian Industrial Production m/m
USD: No data due for release