The Aussie traded lower overnight opening this morning at 0.7596. Once again overnight gains did see pricing above 76 cents peaking at 0.7623 before retreating early in the session.

Volumes were significantly reduced with the worlds two largest foreign exchange markets in New York and London closed for public holidays. This however did not help stem them tide of a weakening EUR. The euro has lost over 1 cent to the greenback trading at a 7 month low. The euro also lost ground to the Aussie helping it trade above 61 cents overnight for only the second time in the last year. Other cross rates were kept steady trading at similar levels to yesterday with small gains against the swiss franc and yen.

On the local front, yesterdays Q1 Inventories data managed to support the Aussie during the day. The release showed a 2.0% increase in inventories held by companies came in well above market forecasts of +0.4%.

The positive news not only increased estimated for Q1 GDP data due out tomorrow, but provided backing for the AUD which was under fire after the release of a report showing  a decline in Australian company profits for the same quarter. These two announcements are the beginning of what will be a very busy week of local data releases.

Today the ABS will release the National Accounts figures. The Current Account deficit reached 15.17 billion in the last quarter of 2004. Estimates for the figure today range from 14.6billion to 15.3 billion. Retail sales figures are also due out today with a marginal improvement of 0.3% expected.

Overseas tonight a host of European and US data will round out a busy 24 hours in the market. French and German Unemployment, Swiss CPI, Canadian GDP and US Consumer confidence figures could all have a say on the currency prices before tomorrow morning.