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The Opening Bell: Where currencies start on Monday, March 9, 2015

Currencies
The Opening Bell: Where currencies start on Monday, March 9, 2015

By Dan Bell

The NZDUSD opens sharply lower at 0.7355 this morning.

The USD surged to an 11½ year high against a basket of currencies Friday night after bumper US employment figures added to expectations that the Federal Reserve will begin raising interest rates in the coming months.

The NZDUSD fell to a 4 week low of 0.7350 in response.

US bond yields rose sharply and equity markets fell after the US employment report showed 295,000 jobs were added in February (235,000 expected) and unemployment rate dropped to a 6½ year low of 5.5%.

China trade balance, released Sunday, exceeded expectations. However, the import numbers fell sharply which is negative for exporting nations such as New Zealand and Australia.

Global equity markets were mostly lower on the day – Dow -1.5%, Nikkei +1.2%, Shanghai -0.5%, FTSE-0.7%, DAX +0.4%

Gold prices dropped 2.6% to USD$1,167. Oil prices (Brent crude) fell 1.2% to USD$59.73 per barrel.

The current indicative mid-rates are:

NZDUSD           0.7355
NZDEUR           0.6785
NZDGBP           0.4890
NZDJPY              88.85
NZDAUD           0.9535
NZDCAD           0.9280

Quarterly NZ Manufacturing Sales will be released at 10:45am today.

Main event on the domestic calendar this week is Thursday’s RBNZ interest rate announcement and related statement. The OCR is expected to remain at 3.50% and most interest will be focused on the Statement.

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Dan Bell is the senior currency strategist at HiFX in Auckland. You can contact him here »

Daily exchange rates

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Source: CoinDesk

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