The NZDUSD opens a little lower at 0.7062 this morning.
With no domestic data releases yesterday, it was up to offshore statistics to impact the level of the NZD.
Australian retail sales figures were surprisingly strong. This caused nothing more than a brief dip in the NZDAUD upward trend.
Of greater impact was the private survey of China’s manufacturing activity which contracted for the first time in almost 12 months. It caused the AUD to fall sharply dragging the NZD along for the ride to a lesser degree – nudging the NZDAUD even loftier levels.
The USD strengthened overnight after the US ADP jobs report exceeded forecasts. This release helped to push expectations to 87% that the US Fed will raise interest rates at its June 14-15 (NZ time) meeting.The more comprehensive US non-farm payrolls employment hits the tapes tonight.
Global equity markets were generally higher on the day – Dow 0.7%, Nikkei +0.4%, Shanghai -0.5%, FTSE +0.4%.
Gold prices fell by 0.5% to USD$1,268 an ounce. Oil prices (WTI) fell 0.5% to USD$48.10 per barrel.
Current indicative rates:
NZDUSD 0.7062 -0.5%
NZDEUR 0.6297 -0.2%
NZDGBP 0.5481 -0.4%
NZDJPY 78.64 0.2%
NZDAUD 0.9575 0.3%
NZDCAD 0.9547 -0.4%
GBPNZD 1.8141 -0.1%
Upcoming Data releases (NZST):
- AUD - New Home Sales
- CAD - Trade Balance
- USD - Non-farm Payrolls
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Dan Bell is the senior currency strategist at HiFX in Auckland. You can contact him here »
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