The NZDUSD opens at 0.7214 (mid-rate) this morning.
The USD has given up ground against all its major rivals, after this morning’s Q4 GDP data release fell short of economist’s forecasts. The report released by the Commerce Department showed gross domestic product remained unchanged from its previous estimate of 1.9%, disappointing economists who had expected growth to be upwardly revised to 2.1%.
There was better news for the USD soon after with consumer confidence, house price growth, and growth in Chicago-area business activity all exceeding economist’s estimates. The consumer confidence index which had been expected to pull back from January’s 111.8 result to 110.9, unexpectedly improved to 114.8 in February. The US house price index spiked by 5.6% y/y in December following a 5.2% increase in November, the index had been expected to remain unchanged. Growth in the Chicago business area jumped to 57.4 in February well ahead of the forecast 53.0 result.
This afternoon the release of Australia’s Q4 GDP data release will dictate direction for the NZDAUD cross rate, before the much anticipated President Trump address to Congress on health care, the budget and tax reform.
Current indicative rates:
NZDUSD 0.7214 0.2%
NZDEUR 0.6805 0.1%
NZDGBP 0.5812 0.5%
NZDJPY 80.89 -0.3%
NZDAUD 0.9405 0.3%
NZDCAD 0.9581 1.3%
Upcoming Data releases (NZST):
- 10:45 - Overseas Trade Index q/q
- 13:30 - Australian GDP q/q
- 15:00 - Pres Trump Address
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Dan Bell is the senior currency strategist at HiFX in Auckland. You can contact him here »
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