Australian Retails Sales Go Up, Aussie Follows

The Australian dollar advanced today versus the euro and the Japanese yen after the report showed retail sales grew in July more than predicted. Australian retail sales rose 0.5 percent in July, while growth by 0.3 percent was predicted. Retail sales fell 0.1 percent in June. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index gained 0.7 percent and the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index advanced 0.5 percent. EUR/AUD slipped from 1.3427 to 1.3349, while AUD/JPY climbed from 82.04 to 82.37 today as of 10:54 GMT.