The Australian dollar is trading higher today after business confidence jumped in June and weak retail sales figures out of the US put into question the recovery in the US economy.
The Aussie dollar closed the day out at US75.51c up from US74.04c at close of trade on Monday.
The National Australia Bank business conditions index came in at 11, and up from 6 on the previous month while the business confidence index showed a reading of 10, jumping from 8 a month earlier and marking the highest figure in nearly 2 years.
The Australian economy has been has found it hard to come to terms with the end of the mining boom, but this latest news may show the trend is changing at that other industries are moving ahead noted Shane Oliver, chief economist at AMP Capital.
“When you look at the data ex-mining, business confidence and conditions are clearly on the up,” he said.
“For those who are doubting that non-mining activity is starting to pick-up, that survey clearly indicates that it is,” he said.
Also helping the Australian dollar was weaker than expected retail sales from the US, which came in at -0.1% against analysts’ expectations of a 0.5% rise and sharply down from 0.8% a month earlier.
Mixed signals out of America about the sustained improvement in the US economy has investors guessing on the timing of an interest rate rise from the US Federal Reserve which may be enough to lend some support to the Aussie dollar in the coming week.