The NZD rallied 39 points on the day or 0.6% from the open, but slid back after the Australian Construction data yesterday afternoon before rallying again overnight on better than expected US data.
The total value of construction work done in Australia slipped to a seasonally adjusted 3.6% on quarter in Q3 of 2015, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said yesterday - standing at A$49.040 billion.
That missed forecasts for a decline of 2.0% following the 1.6% increase in Q2. On a yearly basis, construction work was down 3.7%.
The Australian government noted that skilled vacancies were up 0.6% month on month in October after rising a downwardly revised 1.1% in September (originally 1.8%).
US unemployment claims were 260k, the lowest level in a month, and better than the 273k forecast. The number of claims reached 255,000 in mid-July, the lowest since December 1973.
Companies are limiting dismissals as a tighter labour market has made it more difficult to attract and keep skilled labourers. This is reinforced by the previous US Payrolls which increased in October by the most in 10 months while the unemployment rate fell to a seven-year low, indicating robust employment that may persuade the Federal Reserve to raise its benchmark interest rate on 16th December.
University of Michigan Consumer Confidence, a measure of current and future economic conditions came it at 91.3 for October worse than the 93.2 expected, but better than September’s 87.2, which was the lowest since November 2014.
US Durable Goods Orders were up 3.0% better than the 1.6% forecast and was the biggest increase since July. A quiet day ahead is expected as US Banks will be closed in observance of Thanksgiving Day.
Global equity markets are higher except Japan : Dow +0.10%, S&P 500 +0.10%, FTSE +0.51%, DAX +2.15%, CAC +1.51%, Nikkei -0.39%, Shanghai +0.88%.
Gold prices are down 0.46% currently trading at $1070 an ounce (-$5), WTI Crude Oil is down 1.15% trading at $42.70 a barrel.
Current indicative rates:
NZDUSD 0.6573 0.5%
NZDEUR 0.6184 0.6%
NZDGBP 0.4343 0.0%
NZDJPY 80.53 0.5%
NZDAUD 0.9055 0.2%
NZDCAD 0.8734 0.4%
Upcoming Data releases (NZST):
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10:45 - Trade Balance
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Dan Bell is the senior currency strategist at HiFX in Auckland. You can contact him here »
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