By Dan Bell

The NZD/USD opens lower at 0.8415 this morning, with the overnight low being 0.8399.

The EUR/USD surged to 7 ½ month high on optimism that progress is being made to avoid the US ‘fiscal cliff’. 

Any deal is viewed as being positive for risk-taking and negative for ‘safe-haven’ assets such as Gold and the USD.

World equity markets were up strongly. The US indices climbed between 0.8% and 1.2%, and the UK and European indices rose 0.4% to 0.6% on the day.

Gold prices fell more than 1% to trade at USD$1666, and Copper prices consolidated recent gains to close at USD$8,045. Other metals prices were generally higher.

The NZD opens at 0.8415 USD, 0.7990 AUD, 0.6360 EUR, 0.5175 GBP, & 70.85 JPY.

NZ Current Account will be released at 10:45am today, followed by GDP & Business Confidence figures Thursday. However, the major focus and driver of the markets will remain on US fiscal cliff developments.

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Dan Bell is the senior currency strategist at HiFX in Auckland. You can contact him here