Article by ForexTime
There was mixed data out of Australia today.
A report showed a smaller-than-anticipated trade deficit. This led to a brief spike up in the AUDUSD right after the data. However, the jump to $0.7268 was very short-lived and then the aussie fell back down after separate data showed disappointing retail sales for Australia.
The trade balance in April showed a deficit of A$1.579bn, less than the A$2.1bn economists had forecast. The trade balance was -A$1.971bn in March, and has been contracting for four straight months now.
A small rise in exports for the month was prompted by an increase in agricultural commodities, while imports of industrial goods also slowed.
Retail sales came in a little worse than expected, however. Sales rose 0.2 per cent month-on-month according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, short of the 0.3 per cent economists were looking for. They had risen 0.4 per cent in March.
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Weighing down the reading were food sales, which contracted 0.3 per cent after posting a 0.5 per cent rise in March. The results tend to show a lot of monthly variation but 0.2 per cent is towards the lower end of the -0.1 to +0.7 per cent range from 2015.
On Wednesday, the AUDUSD rose sharply to a two-week high of $0.7300 after stronger-than-expected first quarter GDP data for Australia.
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