Lots happening today!
The Aussie dollar fell to just 90.1 cents at one stage before returning to 90.3 cents. T
Futures markets have all but priced in an interest rate cut for August 6, it now being considered at 96% likelihood i.e. a done deal.
The stock market closed out a bonanza month with moderate gains, finishing the month up by 5.2%.
RP Data's housing market data for the month of July shows that prices gained a very strong 1.6% in the month.
As expected, over the year to date, the best performing cities have easily been Sydney (+6.75%) and Perth (+6.14%).
The worst performing major capital city over the year to date has easily been Adelaide.
The South Australian capital is the only city to record price declines, with RP Data showing prices to have dropped by more than 3% over the past 3 months.
Prices in the cycle since the previous trough are up strongly to record highs in Sydney (+9.6%) and Perth (+10.3%) but remain well below previous peaks in Adelaide and Brisbane.
Meanwhile, US house prices are up by 12.1% on a year ago according to the Case-Shiller 20 city house price index.
The Reserve Bank also released its financial aggregates, showing a slow but steady recovery in the housing market continuing, with credit growth rising by 4.6% over the year to June:
"Over the year to June, total credit rose by 3.1 per cent.
Housing credit increased by 0.4 per cent over June following an increase of 0.4 per cent over May. Over the year to June, housing credit rose by 4.6 per cent.
Other personal credit increased by 0.2 per cent over June after decreasing by 0.1 per cent over May. Over the year to June, other personal credit increased by 0.2 per cent.
Business credit rose by 0.5 per cent over June after increasing by 0.2 per cent over May. Over the year to June, business credit rose by 0.9 per cent.
Over the month of June, M3 grew by 0.4 per cent and broad money grew by 0.4 per cent. Over the year to June, broad money grew by 5.4 per cent."
