• US President Obama is to hold a press conference at 1830GMT

New Zealand retail sales figures early in the day:

  • Retail Sales -0.4% (QoQ) (Prior Q result: -1.3% and Market forecast: +0.5%)
  • Core Retail Sales -0.3% (QoQ) (Prior Q result: +0.9% and Market forecast: +0.6%)
  • NZD/USD down to 0.8151 before recovering to low 0.8170s over the course of the day
  • South Korean unemployment 3% vs 3.1 expected
  • Aust: Westpac Consumer Confidence in November (survey conducted Nov 5 – 11) showed a strong rise of +5.2pct to an index level of 104.3 (previous was at 99.2)
  • highest level since April 2011
  • Australian wage growth was muted, slightly below expectations, the WPI coming in at +0.7% for the 3rd quarter vs. +0.8% expected

A quiet Asian day, but with some interesting developments in the price action. 1.0440 in the AUD/USD has been a notable level for recent days now. The AUD probed there after the positive figures on consumer confidence, grinding its way through the sellers to poke above 1.0450 and then relax back to 1.0430. The AUD continued its resilient ways, back above 1.0440 for the balance of the afternoon, but not able to make gains above 50 as yet. Late afternoon market chatter, though, is saying that despite option-related selling around 1.0450, gathering sovereign and CB bids is making the upside look vulnerable for at least a further test.

EUR/USD, too, had persistent buyers, testing (very) short-term resistance at 1.2725 before dipping back only a few spreads. A little ticking higher in the afternoon took it back toward, but unable so far to pierce, its highs.

The NZD was a sharp mover early – dreadful retail sales figures as it fell >40 points from 0.82 to below 0.8160. It did find room to recover a little, ticking back above & around 0.8170 for the balance of the day.

USD/JPY was quiet – not much more than 79.40-54 range.

Cable, too, despite the EUR managing a bit of a rise, had a constrained run from 1.5866 to 1.5887, an afternoon test of 1.5890 showing rejection back to 80.