Forexpros – The Australian dollar was almost unchanged against its U.S. counterpart on Monday as concerns over Italy’s debt woes slightly eased ahead of an Italian bond auction later in the day.
AUD/USD hit 1.0341 during late Asian trade, the pair’s highest since November 9; the pair subsequently consolidated at 1.0279, inching up 0.02%.
The pair was likely to find support at 1.0136, the low of November 9 and resistance at 1.0445, the high of November 3.
Market sentiment strengthened after Italy’s president appointed former European Commissioner Mario Monti to head a new government charged with implementing urgent reforms to end a crisis that has endangered the whole euro zone.
Monti began immediately to work on forming a new national unity government that will be charged with the difficult task of crushing the country’s surging debt.
Meanwhile, investors remained cautious ahead of a EUR3 billion Italian 5-year bond auction, later in the day.
Also Monday, a preliminary government report said that Japan’s GDP rose 1.5% in the third quarter, in line with expectations. The previous quarter’s figure was revised down from minus 0.3% to minus 0.5%.
Japan is Australia’s largest export partner.
The Aussie was fractionally higher against the New Zealand dollar with AUD/NZD inching up 0.03%, to hit 1.0277.
Earlier in the day, official data showed that New Zealand core retail sales rose far more-than-expected in the third-quarter, jumping 2.4%, while retail sales advanced 2.2%, beating expectations for a 0.6% rise.
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