Earlier in the Day:

Economic data released through the Asian session was on the heavier side this morning, with key stats including November building consent figures out of New Zealand, November household spending and current account numbers out of Japan and November retail sales figures out of Australia.

For the Kiwi Dollar, building consents fell by 2% in November, month-on-month, reversing a downwardly revised 1.4% rise in October, according to figures released by NZ Stats.

• Year-on-year, new home consents were up 5.3%, with stand-alone houses accounting for almost two-thirds of new homes consented over the year.

• On the non-residential side, consents issued exceeded NZ$7bn for the first time on record in the year ended November 2018, while the value of offices and transport buildings consented for the year had the largest fall, down NZ$351m year-on-year.

The Kiwi Dollar moved from $0.67808 to $0.67799 upon release of the figures before rising to $0.6787 at the time of writing, a gain of 0.10% for the session.

For the Japanese Yen, household spending rose by 1.1% in November, month-on-month, to come in ahead of a forecasted 0.2% rise, while down from October’s 1.8% rise. Year-on-year, household spending fell by 0.6%, which was worse than a forecasted stall, following  October’s 0.3% decline.

• Spending fell on fuel, light & water charges (-10%); medical care (-5.2%); food (-2.2%); culture & recreation (-2.3%); furniture & household utensils (-1.8%); transportation & communication (-1.6%) and clothing & footwear (-0.9%), all contributing to the year-on-year fall in spending.

• Increased spending on housing (+18.6%) and education (+7.5%) offset some of the downside.

According to the figures released, household disposable income rose by 0.3%, with income rising by 0.1%, while the average propensity to consume slid by 1.7%.

Of less influence was Japan’s current account figures that were released later in the morning, with the current account surplus narrowing from ¥1.310tn to ¥0.757tn in November, coming in above a forecasted ¥0.568tn.

The Japanese Yen moved from ¥108.332 to ¥108.343 against the U.S Dollar, upon release of the household spending figures, before easing to ¥108.36 at the time of writing, a gains of 0.06% for the session.

For the Aussie Dollar, month-on-month retail sales rose by 0.4% in November, which came in ahead of a forecasted and October 0.3% increase. According to figures released by the ABS:

• Household goods retailing led the way, rising by 1.2%, with spending on clothing, footwear and personal accessories up by 1.5%, both set of numbers supported by promotional activity, including Black Friday.

• There were also increases in spending in food retailing (+0.2%) and department stores (+0.4%).

• Dragging on the headline number were falls in spending on other retailing (-0.1%) and cafes, restaurant and takeaway services retailing (-0.1%).