By Dan Bell
The NZD/USD opens around 0.7970/0.7990 after trading to a low of 0.7926 overnight.
US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke offered few new clues on whether the U.S. central bank was moving closer to a fresh round of monetary stimulus, repeating the Fed's pledge to act if needed. Bernanke told the Senate Banking Committee the U.S. economic recovery was being held back by anxiety over Europe’s debt crisis and the path of U.S. fiscal policy.
Greece's coalition government will seek a bridging loan to tide it over while it scrambles to find 11.7 billion euros of spending cuts. The measures must be submitted for approval by July 24, when auditors of the so-called "troika" of the European Union, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank are expected to return to Athens for a check-up mission.
US stocks are up overnight with the S&P 500 +0.74%. Commodities have had a mixed night with the CRB Index down 0.11% but Oil prices up 0.77%.
NZ CPI came in at an annual rate of 1% yesterday - the lowest since 1999 which reduces any need for the RBNZ to tighten monetary policy.
The NZD has underperformed against the major crosses since the announcement and we open at 0.7730 AUD. 0.6480 EUR, 0.51 GBP, 63.00 JPY.
RBA Monetary Policy Meeting minutes yesterday dashed hopes of further aggressive rate cuts in Australia. The RBA said they saw no need to cut rates at the last meeting and that business conditions appear to be improving.
Fonterra Global Dairy Trade Auction this morning has seen average prices down 0.9%.
Not much to report on the local front today.
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Dan Bell is the senior currency strategist at HiFX in Auckland. You can contact him here
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