The Australian dollar is spiking

The Australian dollar is spiking despite the latest data on retail sales.

The currency is up by 0.5% at .7629 per dollar as of 7:29 a.m. ET.

Earlier in the daay, Australian retail sales rose 0.1% in June, below expectations of a 0.4% increase.

This was the weakest quarterly rise since the second quarter of 2014.

"The market looked past it, and the Australian dollar is the strongest of the major currencies today," observed Marc Chandler, the global head of currency strategy at Brown Brothers Harriman, in a note.

"Despite the rate cut earlier this week and the lower trend in commodity prices, the Australian dollar has proven quite resilient," he added.

As for the rest of the world, here's the scoreboard as of 7:32 a.m. ET.

• The British pound is down by 1.4% at 1.3135 against the dollar after the Bank of England cut its key rate 25 basis points to 0.25%. This is the first time the bank has lowered rates since 2009, and was widely expected by economists.
• The US dollar index is up by 0.2% at 95.77 ahead of several data points. Initial jobless claims will cross the wires at 8:30 a.m. ET, and factory orders are due out at 10 a.m. ET. Then, at 10:30 a.m. ET, natural-gas inventories will be released.
• The euro is down by 0.3% at 1.1120 against the dollar.
• The Japanese yen is little changed at 101.22 per dollar.

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