Record high consumer prices in the Euro-Zone led the euro to make a run at 1.55, while rising energy and metals prices helped the commodity currencies to pick up minor gains against the US currency. On the other side of the spectrum, the low yielding Swiss franc inched higher as the USD/CHF pair fell to 1.04, followed by the Japanese yen as the USD/JPY pair fell to 108.1. Oil prices fell after peaking to a record high of $139.89 during today's session as Saudi Arabia told the UN that it will increase oil production by 200,000 barrels to 9.7M barrels a day in July. Raging energy costs continued to take a toll on the US economy as the New York Fed announced that the Empire Manufacturing index fell more than expected to -8.7 from -3.2 in May due to weak consumer and business demand.
The Aussie dollar followed the Euro higher during European trade rallying from late Asian lows of 0.9370 to a high of 0.9423. A bounce in the Greenback during New York trade sees the AUD open right on 94 cents this morning as the market anticipates the release of the RBA policy minutes from the June meeting where interest rates were kept on hold.
New Zealand Dollar: In N.Z economic data released yesterday it was revealed that the services industry contracted for a second straight month in May with the Performance of Services Index coming in at 49.1. The market however paid little attention to the news as the Kiwi traded around the 75 cent mark for the majority of the session.
A raft of UK and stateside data is out today with UK CPI &US PPI figures for May and YY to show inflation pressures are still at work in both economies, adding further pressure on the FED and BOE to raise rates at their next meetings in July.