Week Ahead: India (Indian rupee - INR), Australia (Australian dollar

A close eye will also stay on energy markets which has shown traders remain convinced that the market will remain tight given OPEC+ will stick to their gradual output increase strategy and as US production struggles to ramp up despite rising rig counts. Energy traders will continue to watch for developments with the EU nearing a Russian energy ban.

India

The Reserve Bank of India sprung a surprise rate hike on markets this past week, sending the Sensex lower whilst providing some support to the INR temporarily. India’s CPI inflation release on Thursday will be this week’s key risk event. If the data comes in above expectations at 7.30%, expectations will rise of a faster more aggressive hiking cycle from the RBI which was quite hawkish in its guidance after the hike. THat will send Indian equities sharply lower once again, while possibly mollifying the impact on the INR from a rampant US Dollar.

Australia

Australia could be a correlation trade for the tier-1 PMI releases from China over the weekend. Poor China data could see the AUD and local equities pressured with most of Asia, ex-Japan closed.SImilarly, a decent showing by the China PMIs will have a positive impact.

Markets, especially currency markets, could face liquidity issues and see sharp moves if the weekend news wire is heavy as Australia and Japan will be the only two major centres open.

Most attention will be focused on Tuesday’s RBA rate decision. A 0.15% hike is fully priced by markets and the clouds from Ukraine and China are weighing heavily on AUD/USD anyway. If the RBA does not hike AUD/USD could fall sharply in the short-term. If the RBA hikes and adjusts its guidance to a more hawkish, AUD/USD could potentially see a big move higher.

Ed Moya

With more than 20 years’ trading experience, Ed Moya is a senior market analyst with OANDA, producing up-to-the-minute intermarket analysis, coverage of geopolitical events, central bank policies and market reaction to corporate news. His particular expertise lies across a wide range of asset classes including FX, commodities, fixed income, stocks and cryptocurrencies. Over the course of his career, Ed has worked with some of the leading forex brokerages, research teams and news departments on Wall Street including Global Forex Trading, FX Solutions and Trading Advantage. Most recently he worked with TradeTheNews.com, where he provided market analysis on economic data and corporate news. Based in New York, Ed is a regular guest on several major financial television networks including CNBC, Bloomberg TV, Yahoo! Finance Live, Fox Business and Sky TV. His views are trusted by the world’s most renowned global newswires including Reuters, Bloomberg and the Associated Press, and he is regularly quoted in leading publications such as MSN, MarketWatch, Forbes, Breitbart, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. Ed holds a BA in Economics from Rutgers University.