Australian dollar awaits key employment data

Financial and commodity markets analytics

The Australian dollar remains weak today after many fear that the wheels are starting to fall off in China, Australia’s biggest trading partner.

At 3.07pm(GMT) the Aussie dollar was trading at US76.20c slightly down from US76.23c in yesterdays close.

Industrial production from the world’s biggest economy came in at 5.6% against analysts expectation of 6.9% while the latest retail sales figures came in at 10.2% against a consensus of 10.9%, with both numbers raising concerns that that the Chinese government will not be able to reach their full year growth rate of 7%.

The numbers add to Mondays disappointing trade balance figures as investors worry that China’s decade long boom may be grinding to a halt.

Figures from Australia today showed Australian consumer confidence had weakened further in April as fears of unemployment grow after the recent end of the mining boom.

The Westpac-Melbourne Institute consumer sentiment index, which is a close measure of consumer confidence, fell 3.2 per cent to 96.2 points in April from 99.5 points in March.

A reading lower than 100 indicates a pessimistic outlook for the economy.

“This is a disappointing result,” said Bill Evans, chief economist at Westpac in Sydney.

All eyes will be on the release of the latest unemployment rate from Australia tomorrow with the local currency likely to come under further pressure if the number fails to satisfy investors.