Forex - Aussie rebounds on housing finance data, eyes ahead on Greece

Investing.com - The Australian dollar rebounded after stronger than expected housing finance data with the focus ahead on Greece's ability to meet a deadline on debt payments.

AUD/USD traded at 0.7917, up 0.34%, while USD/JPY changed hands at 120.19, up 0.10%. EUR/USD traded at 1.1162, up 0.05%.

In Australia, March housing finance data rose 1.6%, beating an expected rise of 1.0% month-on-month after a 1.2% increase in February.

The increase in owner-occupied loan commitments was more than expected but the data was mixed overall because the rise was skewed toward purchases of established dwellings. Housing will be closely watched by the Reserve Bank and the Australian Prudential (LONDON:PRU) Regulation Authority - which are closely monitoring this to assess and contain risks.

In Japan at 1400 (0500 GMT), the March preliminary indices of leading, coincident and lagging indicators are due. The coincident composite index (CI), which reflects current business conditions, is expected to post the second straight drop in March, down by about 1.0 point, after falling 2.5 points in February.

Also possibly due today are China's April New Loans, Money Supply (M2), Total Social Financing data. A slight dip is expected in April new loans after March's reasonably strong CNY1.18 trillion while M2 gained 11.6% in March.

The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was down 0.04% to 95.08.

Overnight, the dollar trimmed gains but remained supported against a basket of other major currencies on Monday, as Friday's U.S. employment data continued to boost the greenback and as trading was expected to remain subdued with no major U.S. data to be released throughout the day.

The dollar remained supported after the Labor Department reported on Friday that the U.S. economy added 223,000 jobs in April, just shy of economists forecast for 224,000. The unemployment rate ticked down from 5.5% to 5.4%, the lowest since May 2008.

However, March’s payrolls report was revised to show that only 85,000 jobs were created, the fewest since June 2012.

Sentiment on the single currency remained vulnerable as Greece and the euro zone were to hold a fresh round of talks later Monday as Athens scrambles to reach an agreement on a package of economic reforms in order to access fresh bailout funds.

Ahead of the talks Greece’s government indicated that it was still hopeful that progress would be made but euro zone officials have indicated that too many issues still remain unresolved.

Greece was due to repay approximately €770 to the International Monetary Fund on Tuesday.

In a widely anticipated decision, the Bank of England kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 0.50%, where it has been since March 2009, and maintained the stock of asset purchases financed by the issuance of central bank reserves at £375 billion.