Australian dollar may continue to rally

Financial and commodity markets analytics

The Australian dollar continues to rise today, racking up its 3rd straight day of gains against its US counterpart after disappointing data out of America and further gains in commodity prices.

At 12.55pm (GMT) the Aussie dollar was trading at US76.05c up from US75.80c in yesterday’s trading session.

The latest durable goods figure from the US hit the market at -1.1 percent against analysts’ expectations for a figure of -0.6 percent marking its lowest level in 18 months.

The news may hinder the US federal Reserve plan to further raise interest rates as consumer confidence wains in the world’s biggest economy.

The fed had been widely expected to lift rates at least 2 more times this year and they recently noted that the increases would be heavily dependent on strong economic data

“Durable goods orders were a disappointment today almost no matter how you slice it,” said Aaron Kohli, a fixed income-strategist for BMO Capital Markets,

“The data trajectory continues to be a boon for Treasury bulls.” He added.

Also, helping the Australian dollar is the continuing recovery in the iron ore price on the back of increased demand from China as new construction projects begin and are predicted to continue for some time,

 “Those infrastructure projects have now been executed on and have built up a body of work which is viewed as sustainable for the next two to three years,” noted Daniel Morgan, an analyst from Investment bank UBS

 “It’s not clear that this level of work is going to accelerate, but it is a big body of stable work.” He added.