Aussie got off to a strong start this week while China’s economy indicating expansion

Yesterday, due to President’s day, the US government and Banks were closed and as a result, the US did not issue any new economic data. Today’s TIC Long-Term Purchases will be the first report this week issued by the US that could potential wipe out some of the greenback’s prior week gains against the Euro.

The TIC Long-Term Purchases, which represents the difference in value between foreign long-term securities purchased by foreigners during the reported period, increased last month, rising from 20 to 126 billion dollars. Analysts are predicting that while the last month’s elevated confidence in the US economy and the dollar probably won’t repeat itself this time, they are still expecting a the index to come out at 50.3Billion.

After finishing last week up against the greenback, the Aussie got off to a strong start this week and continued to increase against its major counterparts.

The Australian dollar continued to appreciate on speculation that China’s economic expansion may accelerate, thus boosting demand for commodities and other cross currencies may initiate satisfied Forex online trading. The AUD rose against all 16 of its most-traded peers after Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Bank of America-Merrill Lynch maintained their forecasts for Chinese growth even as officials cool lending to restrain price growth.

According to these two banks, economic growth in China, Australia’s biggest trading partner, may continue expanding even after the Chinese central bank raised reserve requirements for lenders last Friday – as result Goldman kept its growth forecast at 11.4%, while Merrill held its at 10.1%. Following the release of this news, the Aussie appreciated 0.2% against the USD.

The highlight of the Asian session this morning was the release of the Australian Monetary Policy Meeting Minutes, which shed light on the RBA’s prior decision to leave key interest rates unchanged at 3.75%. While the central Bank repeated that further rate hikes may occur in the near future, there was little change in the Australian currency.

Following the release of the RBA minutes the AUD traded at 0.89625USD from its opening price of 0.88951USD.