Consumer confidence report in Australia today has just become a focus

Each Tuesday morning in Australia we get the weekly ANZ Consumer Confidence report. Today's is for the week ended September 20.

Each week the report attracts just a small interest, its not much of a market mover. But today's is going to be a lot more closely watched than normal. Why?

Last week we got a change of Prime Minister in Australia. The new PM is more of a centrist, with a wider appeal to voters, and is perceived as having a much better handle on economic management than the previous PM.

This should result in a good size lift in consumer confidence today, which will be read as a positive for the economy (obviously this is only one week's figure and a sustained uplift will be needed ... but don't forget, the spot FX market can be a very short-term focused market and today's figure will be heeded).

A miss (lower than previous) will be very disappointing indeed and will weigh on the currency. A beat on the prior reading is expected and should be a positive input for the currency. Is it 'priced in'? Always a difficult question, but remember this is not a closely watched data point and so I wouldn't think its priced in, no. I don't expect a big reaction on the data point either way, but a beat will be a positive input.

Last week's result was 105.3.