Australian Retail Sales miss the Mark

This morning, Australian retail sales missed the mark, widely, as more bad news came out of the Australian economy. The AUD/USD Forex market weakened nearly 0.5 percent after key data showed Australian retail sales badly missed analyst expectations.

The data showed that retail sales turnover fell 0.1 percent in March. Analysts expected an increase of 0.3 percent. The quarterly measure for retail sales also missed the mark. This number rose a tepid 0.1 percent versus what the analysts had hoped for a rise of 0.5 percent. Even worse, department stores saw a 0.1 percent decrease in turnover for March. This report showed that clothing, footwear and personal accessory retail sales contracted 0.3 percent. This same report also showed that household goods sales fell 0.3 percent in March.

The Australian Dollar weakens this Morning

Looking at the above MT 4 chart, the AUD/USD Forex market lost half a percent after the retails sales miss. The Aussie fell alongside front end government bond yields as markets interpret this as a dovish signal for the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA). The RBA is already in a wait and see mode and is unlikely to raise its benchmark cash rate anytime soon. Especially since central bank officials perceive the Aussie dollar as still being too strong. They are also concerned about the high amount of household debt piling up as well as a growing housing market bubble.