AUD/USD: RBA Minutes Reveal That Rate Cut Was To Boost Non-Mining Sectors

AUD/USD: RBA Minutes Reveal That Rate Cut Was To Boost Non-Mining Sectors

For the 24 hours to 23:00 GMT, AUD weakened marginally against the USD to close at 1.0544.

LME Copper prices declined 0.6% or $46.8/MT to $8000.5/MT. Aluminium prices rose 1.5% or $31.0/MT to $2163.3/MT.

In the Asian session, at GMT0400, the pair is trading at 1.0541, with the AUD trading marginally lower from yesterday's close.

This morning, minutes from the central bank's December 4 meeting revealed that members of the Reserve Bank of Australia's monetary policy board stated that while global economic news over the past month had become more positive, further easing was appropriate and that the rate cut decision was to support underperforming sectors of the economy, including housing construction and retail, ahead of the expected peak in the resource sector investment.

Additionally, Conference Board's index of leading economic indicators in Australia climbed 0.2% in October, following a revised 0.4% drop recorded in the previous month.

Separately, China's foreign direct investment inflows declined 3.6% (YoY) in the first eleven months of 2012 to $100.0 billion.

The pair is expected to find support at 1.0526, and a fall through could take it to the next support level of 1.0511. The pair is expected to find its first resistance at 1.0557, and a rise through could take it to the next resistance level of 1.0572.

Trading trends in the pair today are expected to be determined by the release of the Westpac leading index in Australia.