Australian dollar stays soft in Asian session and continues to struggle around 0.7 against the greenback. Trade deficit narrowed to AUD -2.46b in July, smaller than expectation of AUD -3.10b. Nonetheless, that's still the country's 16th consecutive monthly balance of deficit. Also, while exports rose 2% mom, that's mainly thanks to 62% mom rise in non-monetary gold shipments, which should be temporary. On the other hand, imports was steady and rose by less than 0.1% mom. Also from Australia, retail sales dropped -0.1% mom in July, much worse than expectation of 0.4% mom.
ECB policy decision and press conference will be a main focus today. The central bank is generally expected to keep interest rate on hold at the record low. No change is also expected on the EUR 60b per month asset purchase program. Attention will firstly be on new staff projections on growth and inflation. There are talks that recent slump in commodity price would trigger a downgrade in inflation projection. Secondly, ECB president Mario Draghi might comment on recent developments in China as well as the strength of Euro on risk aversion.
Meanwhile, another focus of European session will be on UK services PMI, which is expected to rise slightly to 57.6 in August. Eurozone will also release retail sales and services PMI finals. From US, main focus will be on ISM non-manufacturing composite, which might drop to 58.3 in August. US jobless claims and trade balance, as well as Canada trade balance will also be featured.