The Australian dollar's year-to-date performance against the U.S. dollar (FXA) is back to even. The leading "risk-on" currency has fought back from a large one month slide that featured losses of as much as 8.5%. It was also a time when the economic data seemed to confirm a weakening Australian economy. The numbers since the recent bottom now seem to indicate that the economy is just fine. Indeed, in its latest monetary policy decision, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) seemed much more concerned about macro-economic forces beyond its borders than domestic developments. The end result is a currency that has shown considerable strength over the past month.

Against the U.S. dollar and Japanese yen, the Australian dollar has almost erased all its May to June losses. However, against a host of other currencies, the Australian dollar has performed a lot better. Only the New Zealand dollar has kept up