The U.S. dollar was little changed on the week despite the FOMC meeting turning out to be hawkish than expected.

The markets are currently looking to price in three rate hikes for this year.  However, the USD remained subdued for the most part across the board.

Friday’s payrolls report came out stronger than expected.

The U.S. unemployment rate held steady at a 17-year low for the fourth month while wage growth jumped 2.9% on an annual basis in January.

The U.S. economy was seen adding 200k jobs during the month of January beating market expectations strongly.

Consumer prices in Australia rise 0.6% in Q4 2017

Consumer prices in Australia were seen to be largely stable although missing estimates by a small margin in 4th quarter ending December 2017.

Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed that consumer prices rose 0.6% during the fourth quarter of 2017.

This was shy of the 0.7% estimates as consumer prices were seen rising at the same pace as the previous quarter.

On an annual basis, consumer prices in Australia rose 1.9% in December 2017 compared to a year ago.

This was also shy of the 2.0% inflation expectations that was penciled by economists.

On the brighter side, annual inflation rate was seen rising from 1.8% seen in the third quarter.

Contributing to the gains were increases in automotive fuel, tobacco and domestic holiday and accommodation prices. The RBA’s weighted median inflation was seen rising 0.4% on the quarter for an annual gain of 2.0%.