The NZDUSD opens at 0.7207 (mid-rate) this morning.
On Friday markets were dominated by the UK election results with the early exit polls followed by the final count resulting in a hung parliament. Prime Minister Theresa May has resisted pressure to resign and is seeking support from Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party in an effort to keep the Conservatives in power. As you would expect the GBP plunged, initially losing 2% in response to the exit polls, but has since stabilised.
The week ahead will be dominated by Thursday’s economic data releases with the US retail sales and CPI data releases printing ahead of the FOMC monetary policy statement and New Zealand’s Q1 GDP result. As of this morning the market has all but priced in a hike from the Federal Reserve, while economists are forecasting our Q1 GDP to increase by 0.7%.
Global equity markets closed out the week mixed - Dow +0.42%, S&P 500 -0.08%, FTSE +1.04%, DAX +0.80%, CAC +0.67%, Nikkei +0.52%, Shanghai +0.26%.
Gold prices fell 1% on Friday to close out the week at $1,265 an ounce. WTI Crude Oil prices edged higher on Friday to closing out the week at $55.83 a barrel for a weekly loss of 4%.
Current indicative rates:
NZDUSD 0.7207 -0.1%
NZDEUR 0.6431 0.0%
NZDGBP 0.5667 1.7%
NZDJPY 79.55 0.2%
NZDAUD 0.9578 0.2%
NZDCAD 0.9705 -0.4%
GBPNZD 1.7646 -1.7%
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Dan Bell is the senior currency strategist at HiFX in Auckland. You can contact him here »
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