The NZDUSD opens at 0.7248 (mid-rate) this morning.
The NZD has continued to trade tight ranges against all its rivals ahead of this morning’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) release. Yesterday afternoon the Australian consumer price index fell short of expectations resulting in a sharp fall for the AUD with the NZDAUD cross rate trading back above 0.9600. Economists are currently forecasting NZ Q4 CPI to show 0.3% growth following the surprise 0.2% (expected 0%) print in Q3 2016.
German Ifo Business Sentiment unexpectedly fell to 109.8 in January from 111.0 in December confounding economists who had expected the index to rise to 111.3. This is the lowest score since September 2016 when the reading hit 109.5.
Crude oil prices fell overnight after the American Petroleum Institute (API) showed U.S. crude, gasoline and diesel stocks increased by 2.93mil barrels last week, the inventories had been expected to increase by 1.5m barrels.
Overnight and on the back of optimism about U.S. economic growth under new President Donald Trump the Dow Jones Index pushed up through 20,000 for the first time, while the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq also spiked to record highs.
Global equity markets are broadly higher - Dow +0.74%, S&P 500 +0.61%, FTSE +0.20%, DAX +1.82%, CAC +0.99%, Nikkei +1.43%, Shanghai +0.22.
Gold prices are down 1.4% currently trading at $1,196 an ounce, WTI Crude Oil has edged lower currently down 0.4% at $53.20 a barrel.
Current indicative rates:
NZDUSD 0.7251 -0.1%
NZDEUR 0.6758 0.0%
NZDGBP 0.5753 -0.8%
NZDJPY 82.48 -0.1%
NZDAUD 0.9599 0.3%
NZDCAD 0.9477 -0.6%
Upcoming Data releases (NZST):
- 10:45 - Q4 CPI
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Dan Bell is the senior currency strategist at HiFX in Auckland. You can contact him here »
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