The Canadian, Australian and New Zealand dollars continued to extend their gains despite a retracement in gold prices and a marginal rise in oil prices.
Stronger Canadian business orders have contributed to the loonie’s strength; upside surprises in Canadian economic data are rare occurrences these days. There was an interesting article in the Australian this week, which is the country’s most popular newspaper calling for a 50bp rate hike by the central bank to bring prices under control. If the RBA raised rates at their next meeting, they would be the only major central bank to be doing so, which would be a big positive for the Australian dollar. New Zealand on the other hand reported much weaker than expected building permits but that had a minimal impact on the New Zealand dollar.
