You don't often see solid data beats go stale quite so fast as the Australian retails sales did today
:-D
AUD up on the beat for retail trade and capex data that was not too bad ... and then 15 minutes later it shot lower on China private manufacturing PMI data.
AUD/USD update:
Anyway, Westpac (in brief) on the retail data, FWIW now ....
- Better than expected
- Stronger post-Cyclone rebound in Queensland and some solid gains across other states.
- Total retail sales - the strongest monthly result since September 2014
- Note that some of the rebound reflects higher prices with fresh fruit and vegetable prices in particular rising due to Cyclone disruptions to supply
- There were strong gains in other sub-groups as well though ... & more subdued across other sub-groups
- Overall the result is considerably better than feared, confirming temporary impacts from weather events were a factor in March and suggesting underlying conditions have improved somewhat. The main caveat is around food prices which may account for the bulk of the gain in this large sub-component (basic food accounts for 40% of total retail sales).
