By Dan Bell
The NZD/USD opens at 0.8160/0.8185 this morning after hitting a high on Friday night around 0.8188.
The rally in the NZD/USD from last week’s lows around 0.8050 has probably got more to do with positioning than anything else.
Rumours that China would cut the RRR for their main banks gave risk appetite a boost in the early London session - the rumour was later denied.
The USD has been weaker against most major currencies. The EUR/USD hit a 3 week high around 1.3290 while the AUD has bounced off last week’s lows around 1.0330 and opens at 1.0450 this morning.
Equities were marginally stronger in the US with the S&P 500 +0.31%.
The NZD has outperformed the AUD over the last few days and opens at 0.78 after trading as high as 0.7830 over the weekend.
Against the other major crosses we open at 0.6150 EUR, 0.5140 GBP and 67.20 JPY.
Not much to report on the data front this week. This morning we get NZ Trade Balance numbers at 10:45am. On Thursday NBNZ Business Confidence numbers will be of interest.
Offshore, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke has a few speaking engagements which will be closely monitored for any insights into his bias on further ‘money printing’ or not.
Core Durable Goods orders from the US on Thursday will also be a focus. On Saturday we get the official PMI Data release from China - last weeks was actually an estimate.
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Dan Bell is the senior currency strategist at HiFX in Auckland. You can contact him here
(Updated with Dow close)
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