The NZDUSD opens at 0.6654 (mid-rate) this morning.
The NZD has had a good start to the week, making steady gains against all its major trading partners as global market sentiment improves.
With the U.S. enjoying a long weekend investors added to their risk portfolios following ECB president Draghi’s address to the European Parliament's Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee.
In his speech Draghi confirmed that “the Governing Council will review and possibly reconsider the monetary policy stance in early March.”
Between now and March 10 (the next scheduled ECB policy meeting) the policy makers will consider the size and the persistence of the fall in oil and commodity prices and the incidence of second-round effects on domestic wages and prices.
They will also analyse the state of transmission of monetary impulses by the financial system and in particular by banks in the backdrop of the recent financial turmoil, and “if either of these two factors entail downward risks to price stability, we will not hesitate to act," Draghi stated.
During our trading day this morning’s Q4 retail sales data release and this afternoon’s quarterly inflation expectations release will dictate direction for the NZD ahead of tonight’s global dairy trade auction.
European and U.S equity markets closed out the week sharply higher - Dow Closed S&P 500 Closed FTSE +2.04%, DAX +2.67%, CAC +3.01%, Nikkei +7.16%, Shanghai -0.63%.
Gold prices are sharply lower currently down 2.3% at $1208 an ounce, WTI Crude Oil has added to Friday’s gains currently up 1.1% at $29.77 a barrel.
Current indicative rates:
NZDUSD 0.6654 0.4%
NZDEUR 0.5965 1.2%
NZDGBP 0.4610 1.0%
NZDJPY 76.30 1.7%
NZDAUD 0.9315 0.0%
NZDCAD 0.9200 0.3%
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Dan Bell is the senior currency strategist at HiFX in Auckland. You can contact him here »
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