Despite a surprise rally in stocks, the USD had fallen away somewhat and is now well and truly back below the highs above 98.00.

The USD has seen a bit of a mixed week, with the safe-havens getting a bit of a bid on the back of the US-China battles, but at the same time, there is clearly a direct impact on the Greenback.

This week there are a few key events worth watching out for, outside the US-China battles.

The main data point of interest will likely be retail sales. We are looking at a slightly weaker result than the last month, but still a positive one. Retail sales have been in reasonable shape given some of the other worries around at the moment.

On Thursday we get both the Philly Fed Manufacturing data as well as Building Permits. There are some worries around housing at the moment, but Manufacturing has been holding up OK.

Clearly, the US-China trade wars are the headline act this week, with not all that much happening with the FOMC or economic data wise.

Asian Session Wrap

The AUD/USD will be in focus once again this week when we get a look at employment data on Thursday.

With the RBA very much focused on the state of the jobs market at the moment, we wouldn’t want to see a slide in the unemployment rate.

There is also a big data point out of China midweek, with industrial production. Chinese data has been very poor of late, and another poor showing could very well crush the Aussie.