Australian Dollar Shrugs Off Soft Retail Data

 
   By James Glynn 
 

        SYDNEY--The Australian dollar moved higher in Asia Friday despite news of softer-than-expected retail sales for November.
        The currency has traded quietly all week awaiting the U.S. employment data due later today, which will help further refine views on when the U.S. central bank will start to raise interest rates.
        At 0615 GMT, the Australian dollar was changing hands at US$0.8138, up from US$0.8106 late Thursday.
        "It feels like only a break of the psychological US$0.8000 barrier or a break of US$0.8200 is needed to shake the market up a bit," said Stephen Innes, senior trader at OANDA Asia Pacific.
        Retail sales rose by a modest 0.1% in November from a month earlier, a disappointing result considering interest rates remained at a record low in the run-up to the holiday period.
        The rise in retail sales was lower than the 0.2% growth economists were expecting, and was the weakest increase since August, when sales grew at roughly the same pace as in November.
        The result reflects lackluster confidence among businesses and consumers as unemployment hovers near decade highs amid a sharp slowdown in mining investment, which has powered Australia's economy for close to a decade.
        "These data confirm that momentum in retail sales was relatively modest in the fourth quarter. Anecdotes for December spending were mixed, but we expect lower oil prices would have helped sales in the month," said Katie Hill, economist at ANZ Bank.
        U.S. jobs data for December on Friday is still the bigger issue for traders. Economists expect a solid gain of 240,000 new nonfarm jobs in the U.S., but that number is down from the 321,000 positions added in November.
        -Write to James Glynn at james.glynn@wsj.com
        (END) Dow Jones Newswires

        January 09, 2015 01:35 ET (06:35 GMT)

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