Market Awaits Next Key Driver

In commodity markets, the focus was on oil. The WTI rose some 5% as a meeting between energy ministers from Russia and Saudi Arabia raised hopes that a production freeze announcement would occur at next month’s OPEC meeting in Algiers. However, when the Saudi oil minister stated there is no explicit agreement and further commented that there is nothing decided on output, with nothing forthcoming, in typical buy the rumour, sell the fact fashion, oil prices plummeted lower. Australian Dollar The Australian Dollar continues to perform well as Aussie dollar bulls have some breathing room as the odds for a September US interest rate lift-off has considerably decreased. Also, the” risk on”appeal from a ” Goldilocks ” type NFP number has underpinned the Aussie, as it has with most commodity-related currencies. We have the RBA later today. While the markets are expecting no change in the Bank’s policy rate, the Aussie dollar remains supported approaching the key .7600 level in the pre-announcement trade as traders are expecting a hawkish rather than a dovish course from the accompanying statement, especially in the wake of the recent run of buoyant domestic economic data.