The three colonial commodity dollars stuck fairly closely together, all falling about 0.8% behind the pound and the US dollar. With the Japanese yen still under the cosh and the euro enjoying a bit of a renaissance, the trio was out of the headlines and left by the wayside.

Australian economic data failed to come to the Aussie's rescue, even though they were not at all bad. The Conference Board's leading index (which aggregates forward-looking statistics to predict the course of the economy) and an equivalent leading index from Westpac both swung from negative to positive, implying future economic expansion.

The wage price index was steady in the fourth quarter of 2011, with growth at an annual 3.6%. The salient figures this week cover new home sales, building permits, retail sales and manufacturing activity.