The NZDUSD opens at 0.6720 (mid-rate) this morning.
The NZDUSD rallied strongly on Friday as both equity markets and commodity prices rallied following the latest round of stimulus announced by the ECB on Thursday.
The NZDUSD has gapped lower from Friday’s close after China’s weekend data releases fell short of economist's estimates. China Industrial Production y/y fell from 5.9% in December to 5.4% in February (exp 5.6%) while retail sales y/y fell from 11.1% in December to 10.2% in February (exp 10.9%)
It threatens to be a volatile week ahead for the NZD with RBNZ Gov Wheeler speaking tomorrow and another GDT auction on Wednesday night, before Thursday morning’s FOMC statement, closely followed by NZ’s quarterly GDP data release.
Global equity markets closed out the week broadly higher - Dow +1.28%, S&P 500 +1.64%, FTSE +1.71%, DAX +3.51%, CAC +3.27%, Nikkei +0.51%, Shanghai +0.20%.
Gold prices fell 1.8% on Friday as equities rallied, closing out the week at $1249 an ounce, WTI Crude Oil rallied 7% over the course of the week to close at $38.50 a barrel.
Current indicative rates:
NZDUSD 0.6720 0.8%
NZDEUR 0.6032 1.3%
NZDGBP 0.4675 -0.2%
NZDJPY 76.60 1.8%
NZDAUD 0.8915 -0.5%
NZDCAD 0.8881 -0.4%
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Dan Bell is the senior currency strategist at HiFX in Auckland. You can contact him here »
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