As investors await the official numbers from the ECB later this morning to determine the participation of today’s LTRO, mixed to the upside economic data out of Australia nonetheless helped the Australian Dollar once again hit the 1.08 level against its U.S. counterpart. On a month-over-month basis, retail sales figures for January were up from December’s -0.1%, and at 0.3% were in line with analysts’ expectations. On OpenBook, the AUD/USD is currently trading at 1.0815, slightly off the day’s high of 1.0824, and sentiment is predominantly bearish. Sentiment for the NZD/USD is also bearish, with the pair recently trading higher at 0.8423, also slightly off the day’s high of 0.8437. Read more
