Christopher Kent is the Assistant Governor (Financial Markets) at the Reserve Bank of Australia was on the trader's list of things to watch for in Asia today.
However, he has made no comments with regards to monetary policy and his comments about forex markets have been ignored by traders that are instead focussed on the People's Bank of China's interest rate decision a little later today that could affect the yuan, US dollar and consequently, the Australian dollar.
Meanwhile, kent explained in his speech, "what I would emphasise is that the driver for many of the changes is the need for greater disclosure and transparency in an increasingly complex market," in reference to the FX Global Code.
With respect to the Aussie, it was ending the North American day -1.04% at 0.7159 within Thursday's range of 0.7243-0.7145.
Yesterday's upbeat Aussie jobs data was tempered by renewed COVID fears, lockdowns which have fuelled a bid in the Us dollar for its safe-haven allure.
The focus in the main is on the central bank divergence between the RBA and the Federal Reserve.
While the RBA is expected to go ahead with plans to taper in September, the minutes highlight a little more caution.
They stated that “the Board would be prepared to act in response to further bad news on the health front should that lead to a more significant setback for the economic recovery”.
Considering the recent wave of covid and fresh or extended lockdowns, the outlook for the third quarter is looking less promising and is a weight on the Aussie.
