The Australian, New Zealand and Canadian dollars were the best performing currencies today against the US dollar.
The strong rallies in these 3 currencies were driven by better than expected economic data and milestones in commodity prices. Last night, Australia reported a 36.7k rise in employment. The Australian labor market is the strongest in 33 years thanks to 16 straight months of job growth. New Zealand also reported growing consumer spending, which comes in stark contrast to the contraction in spending reported by the US today. Canada reported lower capacity utilization in the fourth quarter, but the third quarter numbers were revised higher. As for commodity prices, gold hit an intraday high above $1000 an oz while oil prices rose to an intraday high above $111 a barrel.
