The NZDUSD opens at 0.7015 (mid-rate) this morning.
After what was a very volatile week markets consolidated on Friday with both currency and equity markets trading tight ranges.
Friday night’s US economic data releases sent mixed signals to investors with industrial production coming in flat for the month of February,(economists had expected to production to increase by 0.3%) while the University of Michigan preliminary sentiment report showed the index increased to 97.6 in March after falling to 96.3 in February. the index had been expected to rise to 97.0.
Key drivers for the NZD this week will be Tuesday night’s global dairy trade auction, which plunged 6.3% at the previous auction a fortnight ago, while on Thursday the Reserve Bank of New Zealand release their latest monetary policy statement. Although the market is pricing in little chance of a rate move the statement may well have a dovish tone to it given last week’s poor GDP report.
Gold prices pushed slightly higher on Friday closing out the week up 0.2% at $1,228 an ounce, WTI Crude Oil was little changed on Friday closing out the week at $48.78 a barrel.
Current indicative rates:
NZDUSD 0.7015 0.6%
NZDEUR 0.6532 0.4%
NZDGBP 0.5665 0.4%
NZDJPY 79.05 0.0%
NZDAUD 0.9115 0.3%
NZDCAD 0.9365 0.8%
Upcoming Data releases (NZST):
- JPY - Bank Holiday
- 10:00 - Westpac Consumer Sentiment
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Dan Bell is the senior currency strategist at HiFX in Auckland. You can contact him here »
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