Forex price action was a mixed bag of beans, as the comdolls gained a few pips while the majors were stuck in tight intraday ranges.
Tight trading conditions – Not even the return of our Japanese trader friends from a holiday was enough to give forex volatility a boost during the Asian session. Much like during the U.S. session, Asian session traders were chillin like villains for the past couple of hours.
We did see some gains for the comdolls though, likely due to slight rallies in gold and oil prices. Gold is up by 0.30% for the day, while U.S. oil is enjoying a nice 0.43% climb to $41.70 and Brent crude oil is also up by 0.39% to $41.70.
RBA gets slap on the wrist – Ever noticed why Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) Governor Stevens and his gang are in radio silence over the Aussie's appreciation lately? Well, it's probably because they recently got slaps on the wrists from all their previous jawboning.
Word around the hood is that the U.S. representative office at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) decided to be hall monitor back in September when it pointed out that the RBA saying that Aussie "depreciation seems both likely and necessary" in August is breaching the central banks' commitment to allow the market to operate freely. Aussie traders said "meh" to this dated report though, and even pushed the comdoll a bit higher across the board.
Comdolls – With no major economic catalysts on deck, market players looked to commodity prices for direction.
AUD/USD is up by 12 pips (+0.16), USD/CAD is down by 14 pips (-0.11%), and NZD/USD inched up by 8 pips (+0.12%).