AUD: Steel prices crucial for AUD in last quarter – BAML

By FXStreet FXStreet (Delhi) – Research Team at BAML, suggest that as the dust settles from the Fed’s “dovish hold”, our attention turns back to China, especially in the context of its influence on the AUD.

Key Quotes

“We have often argued that steel prices provide the best metric of China’s underlying demand for Australia’s key exports of iron ore and coal, both inputs for steel production. Steel prices have fallen by 4.3% since China’s fixing reform on August 11, consistent with the decline in AUD that we expected following the RMB depreciation.”

“However, the outlook for steel prices from here has become clouded by the various easing measures announced by China- while these have seemingly not helped overall growth, there is evidence of stabilization in property and infrastructure sectors that are the predominant users of steel.”

“Our assessment of steel price dynamics suggests it is likely to stabilize if not rise heading into year-end, and is a key reason we are comfortable with projecting only a small further decline in AUD/USD(to 0.69) by December. We continue to expect it to reach 0.65 in 2016 as capital inflows into Australia’s resource sector decline. Over the coming months, this would present an opportunity for AUD to …read more

Source:: FX Street