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The Opening Bell: Where currencies start for Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Currencies
The Opening Bell: Where currencies start for Wednesday, December 18, 2013

By Dan Bell

The NZD/USD opens around 0.8250 this morning after another night of consolidation.

Global stocks are weaker overnight with European equities down across the board. US stocks are mixed with the S&P 500 currently down 0.20%.

Commodities are mostly weaker with oil down 0.15% and gold down 1.09%.

US treasury yields are slightly weaker with the 10 year down to 2.84%.

The Australian government announced a deterioration of its budget in the current fiscal year yesterday.

The deficit is expected to swell to A$47 bln from A$30.1 bln.

In contrast the New Zealand government announced a larger than expected surplus in yesterday's Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update.

The NZD opens at current indicative levels:  0.9278 AUD, 0.5996 EUR, 0.5075 GBP, 84.75 JPY, 0.8765 CAD.

From NZ today the focus will be on Current Account data at 10:45 am and ANZ Business Confidence at 1 pm.

From Australia the focus will be on a speech from RBA Governor Glenn Stevens at 11:30am where he is expected to continue talking down the AUD.

The big focus over the next 24 hours is the FOMC announcement at 8am tomorrow morning. The market is now pricing in approx 50% chance the Fed start tapering their bond purchases by US$10 bn a month.

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

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1 Comments

Tapering?  ..... tighten your saftey belts and prepare yourselves for an emergency Landing folks , thats the Brace Position for those who dont know.  

 

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