The Reserve Bank of Australia lowered their interest rate as had been expected, by 25 basis points to 2.5%, a record low, seeing the AUD gain 50 cents on the USD following the release as no further cuts to the rate were mentioned, but they did say “the board will continue to assess the outlook and adjust policy as needed to foster sustainable growth in demand and inflation outcomes consistent with the inflation target over time”. Markets had expected a further cut to 2.25%, although the strength in the currency following the statement might suggest that the expectation has eased somewhat. AUD/USD was trading at 0.8981 with a high of 0.8987 and a low of 0.8905 so far.

The NIKKEI closed at 14401.10 up 143.02 a gain of 1.00%

Italian GDP figures will be released today and expected drop of 0.4% for the second quarter of 2013 when it dropped 0.6% in the first. The in a country where the political stability has been rocked by indecision and scandal since the beginning of the year, most recently when former Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, was convicted on tax evasion charges. Euro Zone retail sales fell by 0.5% for June; this was in line with expectations. EUR/USD was trading at 1.3254 with a high of 1.3271 and a low of 1.3245 so far. Tomorrow Swiss Consumer Price Index figures will be released and the USD/CHF is trading at 0.9290 with a high of 0.9296 and a low of 0.9246 ahead of that.

The FTSE100 closed at 6619.58 down 28.29 or minus 0.43% while the DAX closed at 8398.38 down 8.56 or minus 0.10%

Yesterday, Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher said he personally would have liked to start trimming the bond buying program some time ago. Following the drop in unemployment last week the tapering is looking a greater possibility. US International Trade Balance figures are out today, forecast at -$43.0 billion while the previous report was -$45.0 billion. Thursday sees the jobless claims figures released, further improvement in the employment situation could raise expectations that the FED will move on tapering and the market reaction to these figures could be interesting. The USD/JPY was trading at 98.45 with a high of 98.58 and a low of 97.83 so far.

The DOW closed at 15612.10 down 46.23 points for a loss of 0.30%

Have a nice day.