AUD/USD surrenders half of early gains ahead of Fed’s interest rate announcement

Australian Dollar Price Today

The table below shows the percentage change of Australian Dollar (AUD) against listed major currencies today. Australian Dollar was the strongest against the British Pound.

	USD	EUR	GBP	JPY	CAD	AUD	NZD	CHF
USD		0.06%	0.35%	0.08%	-0.04%	-0.25%	-0.04%	0.31%
EUR	-0.06%		0.30%	0.00%	-0.09%	-0.31%	-0.10%	0.26%
GBP	-0.35%	-0.30%		-0.26%	-0.39%	-0.61%	-0.40%	-0.04%
JPY	-0.08%	0.00%	0.26%		-0.12%	-0.32%	-0.11%	0.25%
CAD	0.04%	0.09%	0.39%	0.12%		-0.22%	-0.00%	0.36%
AUD	0.25%	0.31%	0.61%	0.32%	0.22%		0.21%	0.58%
NZD	0.04%	0.10%	0.40%	0.11%	0.00%	-0.21%		0.36%
CHF	-0.31%	-0.26%	0.04%	-0.25%	-0.36%	-0.58%	-0.36%

The heat map shows percentage changes of major currencies against each other. The base currency is picked from the left column, while the quote currency is picked from the top row. For example, if you pick the Australian Dollar from the left column and move along the horizontal line to the US Dollar, the percentage change displayed in the box will represent AUD (base)/USD (quote).

The Australian Dollar gained sharply earlier in the day, following the release of the Australian Q3 and August’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) data. The report showed that inflationary pressures grew by 1.3% on a quarterly basis, faster than estimates of 1.1% and the prior reading of 0.7%.

On an annualized basis, the Australian CPI rose at a faster pace of 3.2% against estimates of 3.0% and the previous release of 2.1%. Meanwhile, the Monthly CPI accelerated to 3.5%.

Hotter-than-projected Australian CPI data has diminished expectations of more interest rate cuts by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) in the remainder of the year.

On the global front, investors await the meeting between United States (US) President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping. The outcome of the meeting will be significant for the Australian Dollar, given that the Australian economy relies heavily on its exports to China.

Meanwhile, the US Dollar (USD) also trades higher ahead of the Federal Reserve’s (Fed) monetary policy announcement at 18:00 GMT. Investors will pay close attention to the interest rate outlook as traders have priced in a 25-basis-point (bps) reduction that will push the Federal Fund rate lower to 3.75%-4.00%.

Market participants would also like to know the current status of the US labor market amid the absence of key economic data releases due to ongoing federal shutdown.

Economic Indicator

Fed Interest Rate Decision

The Federal Reserve (Fed) deliberates on monetary policy and makes a decision on interest rates at eight pre-scheduled meetings per year. It has two mandates: to keep inflation at 2%, and to maintain full employment. Its main tool for achieving this is by setting interest rates – both at which it lends to banks and banks lend to each other. If it decides to hike rates, the US Dollar (USD) tends to strengthen as it attracts more foreign capital inflows. If it cuts rates, it tends to weaken the USD as capital drains out to countries offering higher returns. If rates are left unchanged, attention turns to the tone of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) statement, and whether it is hawkish (expectant of higher future interest rates), or dovish (expectant of lower future rates).