Themes

• General mood is “risk off”
• Australian Job Advertisements surge 8.4%
• Gold breaches $2,000/oz

What’s Moving

Asia opened to early Dollar buying, mainly against the Euro and the Yen, while the AUD continued to climb to fresh (near) six-month highs. Gold also caught a strong bid taking it just over $2,000/oz. while oil also saw good buying out of Hong Kong.

The gains in oil and gold supported fresh recent highs on both the AUD and NZD.

Moves of this size in Asia are rare, so we are expecting them to continue in overnight trade. Markets will continue to eye news out of the Ukraine for short-term trading direction.

Data tonight sees:

• German Factory Orders (E: +0.9%)
• German Retail Sales (E: +1.9%)
• Swiss Unemployment Rate (E: 2.3%)
• U.S. Consumer Credit (E: 24.7bln)