Australian dollar at multi-year lows against the British pound - we haven't seen this exchange rate since October 2011

The Australian dollar (Currency:AUD) is suffering right across the board once more today as the 'remarkable' sell-off in this under-fire commodity currency continues:

The pound to Australian dollar exchange rate is 0.9 pct higher at 1.6293.
The euro to Australian dollar exchange rate is 0.85 pct higher at 1.3843.
The Australian dollar to US dollar exchange rate is 0.6 pct higher at 0.9485.

(Please Note: The above are spot market quotes to which your bank will add a discretionary spread. However, an independent FX provider will guarantee to beat your bank's offer, thus delivering more currency. Please learn more here.)

We have note seen levels like this in GBP-AUD since the 3rd of October 2011. "Sterling is trading up at 1.6260 and it’s proving very difficult indeed to call a top on this pair’s remarkable rally," says Richard Driver at Caxton FX.

Interestingly, the British pound was unable to clear this resistance level at 1.6281 on that date. In fact, if we look at the below chart we can see that this level is incredibly important for the pound versus Australian dollar rate.
(Please click to enlarge).

Will this level be finally be breached? No doubt, the big catalyst for any move higher will be tomorrow's US Non-Farm Payroll report which will determine price action right across the financial marketplace.

Fresh data releases add to Australian dollar woes

The data releases coming out of Australia this week haven't inspired confidence amongst foreign exchange traders; many are anticipating AUD-negative interest rate cuts out of the Reserve Bank of Australia as a result.

Today, "Australia managed to achieve back-to-back monthly trade surpluses, but only just. A surplus of $28mn was recorded in April. This was a little less favourable than anticipated (market median $182mn)," says Sean Callow at Westpac.

There was a $527mn deterioration in the trade position between March and April.

Note, the March surplus was upgraded, as anticipated, to $555mn from an originally reported surplus of $307mn.

ANZ Research say the narrowing in the surplus was driven by a steep increase in capital goods imports and a slight decline in the value of resources exports.

"The smaller than expected trade surplus provided another reason to sell AUD/USD which was already close to lows dating to Oct 2011. The pair dipped from 0.9490 to 0.9478 but this proved fleeting, perhaps noting the sharp upward revision to March. The Aussie then pushed back above 0.9500. Overall, it does look vulnerable still, with little obvious support until the Oct 2011 lows of 0.9388," says Callow.