It was another quiet day with a lack of newsflow to drive markets. Currency movements were minimal, with the NZD the only major currency we closely monitor standing out.
The NZD is down 0.6% to 0.7250, largely reflecting a fairly steady decline during the local and Asian trading sessions. It has managed to stabilise throughout the night around its current level.
With little data or news, we can only conclude that flows have been the key driver to take the currency back to around the levels it started the week. There’s nothing on the local calendar today and the only release of interest this week is Friday’s ANZ business outlook survey.
The NZD is also down on all the crosses, with AUD, EUR, GBP, JPY, and CAD all trading within 0.2% from their opening levels versus the USD. This sees NZD/AUD at 0.9460, NZD/JPY at 73, NZD/GBP at 0.5580 and NZD/EUR at 0.6470.
The only data release of note was US durable goods orders. This came in flat for August, a positive surprise relative to the fall expected by the market, but downward revisions and weak shipments (which will result in a downward to GDP) curbed any market enthusiasm. Indeed the message is that US business investment remains very soft.
Fed Chair Yellen’s testimony in front of lawmakers went over familiar ground. She commented that the current course of the economy calls for a gradual increase in interest rates, something that doesn’t have a fixed timetable.
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