The Australian dollar extended weekly gains, rising 0.38% on Friday and ending the week up 0.58% as the US dollar gave back part of its advance on expectations the Federal Reserve will keep rates unchanged in October. AUD\/USD finished around 0.6983, while the US Dollar Index added 0.12% to 102.73. US consumer sentiment weakened, with the October index at 46.3 versus 48.1 and below a 47.6 consensus, even as inflation expectations edged up: the one-year measure rose to 4.7% from 4.6%, and the five-year to 3.5% from 3.4%. <\/p>\n\n
FOMC minutes pointed to broad backing for a hike but showed disagreement on whether any move would be precautionary or the start of a tightening cycle, and officials reiterated concern about inflation alongside a strong labour market. Money markets priced an 81% probability of no October hike, but also an 81% chance of a 25-basis-point increase by December, according to Prime Terminal data.<\/p>\n\n
In the week ahead, focus turns to the RBA minutes and Australian employment figures, while US attention centres on CPI and PPI, followed by Retail Sales, Fed speeches and jobs data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n