Better-than-expected Consumer Price Index (CPI) data from Australia helped lift the aussie against the greenback in today's Asian session.
The CPI rose by 0.8% in Q4 2013 compared to the last quarter, and was higher than the expected growth of just 0.5%. Meanwhile, it also went higher than expected at 2.7% over the past 12 months against the projected rise of just 2.5%. Then finally, the RBA's trimmed mean CPI was up by 0.9% on a QoQ basis versus expectations of a 0.6% rise.
All these helped the AUD/USD pair to its highest level since Thursday last week after it took a beating due to the poor Australian employment data. The pair is currently trading at 0.8862 with initial resistance seen at 0.8846, followed by 0.8868. Meanwhile, initial support is at 0.8878, followed by 0.8756.
The AUD/NZD pair also made a sharp rise after the release of the Australian CPI earlier. This helped erase much of yesterday's losses brought about by the strong New Zealand CPI, which dragged the pair to sub-1.0600 level.
News that could affect the pair this week are the Business NZ PMI for December (today, 9:30pm, GMT), and Australia's Consumer Inflation Expectation for December (23 Jan, 12:00am, GMT).
The AUD/NZD pair is currently trading at 1.0655, with initial resistance seen at 1.0730, followed by 1.0756. Meanwhile, initial support is at 1.0630, followed by 1.0603.
As for the USD/JPY, the pair continued to seesaw around the 104.00-104.80 range that began last week. There is still no clear indicator at the moment where the pair would head. However, the Bank of Japan's interest rate decision about an hour from now (3:00am, GMT) might be able to influence the movement of the pair in today's trading.
The USD/JPY pair is currently trading at 104.30, with initial resistance seen at 104.93, followed by 105.20. Meanwhile, initial support is at 104.20, followed by 103.94.
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