ABS

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) found that total personal finance commitments lifted 2.1 per cent to an adjusted $6.490 billion in February - following a 3.6 per cent increase in January. This could be translated in a consumer confidence in the economy. This may be attributed to an unemployment rate at a 29 year low of 5 per cent and job advertisements at record levels.

"The Australian Bureau of Statistics said the total value of finance for houses dropped to $18.3 billion during the month."

For traders the ramifications In my opinion are minor - but it's nice to know. The economy doesn't rely on one indicator to tell us at what level it is. But in an economic sense it could be seen as a slowing down of the property market, and nothing more - perhaps a knock on effect that people are buying less houses could mean they are hesitant to or there's enough houses in the market... who knows? One can only speculate.

The Australian dollar opened nearly one US cent higher on Tuesday as weaker-than-expected US economic figures underpinned the gains.

However, the local unit's moves are expected to be capped by a slew of data releases this week.

At 7am (AEDT), the local unit was trading at US74.30¢, compared with Monday's close of US73.40¢.

Overnight, it reached a low of US73.23¢ and a high of US74.53¢.

Westpac Bank senior currency strategist Richard Franulovich said the weaker-than-expected US home sales figures boosted the Australian dollar.