Themes

• General mood is “risk off”
• RBA’s Lowe: We are prepared to be patient, don’t need to move in lockstep with others
• Lowe: Remains to be seen whether rates will be raised this year

What’s Moving

The market remained fairly quiet in Asia today, consolidating overnight movements amid the lack of clear directional cues locally. The Dollar held near session worst levels for most of the majors and was constrained within tight ranges on light two-way trade.

The AUD managed to extend above New York session highs, with buying interest seen despite dovish comments from RBA Governor Lowe, who doesn’t seem in a rush to raise rates at all.

Tonight has little in the way of data and events scheduled, so the U.S. equity market (coming off three consecutive days of gains) should define currency lows.

Data tonight sees:

• Spanish Unemployment Change (E: -50.7k)
• U.S. ADP Non-Farm Employment (E: +185k)
• Canadian Building Permits (E: -1.6%)
• U.S. Crude Oil Inventories (E:  1.8mln)