Developments in Ukraine dominated the headlines again overnight, extending yesterday's broadly risk averse start to the week that comes as no surprise in the context of the most serious impasse between Russia and the West since the end of the Cold War more than 20 years ago.
Ukraine's army has claimed that the Russian Navy's Black Sea fleet has given them until 5am local time to give up their weapons or face all out assault. Russian officials have dismissed the claim as disinformation.
Despite this, the NZD managed to hold up better than most, opening this morning at 0.8365 in USD terms.
Stock markets sank on the imminent threat of military escalation, as major US indices are all down around 1%, while most Asian and European bourses fell 1.5-3%.
Gold is firmly higher again overnight, setting fresh 4 month highs as safe haven assets benefit from Ukrainian tensions.
In New Zealand, ANZ's Commodity Price Index is released later today. Australia reports Building Permits and the Current Account balance, before the Reserve Bank of Australia give us the result of their monthly interest rate meeting later.
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Dan Bell is the senior currency strategist at HiFX in Auckland. You can contact him here »
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