The NZDUSD opens at 0.6705 (mid-rate) this morning.
The NZD has fallen further against the USD trading as low as 0.6685 overnight.
The USD has continued to be the standout performer over the past 2 days extending yesterday’s gains following comments from several Fed Presidents that rate increases might be on the way sooner rather than later.
Following on from Fed Presidents John Williams and Dennis Lockhart who have both been quoted saying rate hikes could come sooner rather than later, new Philadelphia Fed President Patrick Harker went one step further suggesting the Federal Reserve should consider hiking rates in April as crude oil prices had “seemingly bottomed out or stabilized”, helping the Fed to reach its 2% inflation target.
Hawkish comments from the RBA saw the AUD rally strongly yesterday afternoon with the NZDAUD cross rate trading as low as 0.8820 (6mth low) before falling commodity prices and what appears to be positioning pushed the rate back up to 0.8900.
Direction for the NZD today will be dictated by this morning’s trade balance, forecast to show a 75m surplus.
Global equity markets are mixed - Dow -0.18%, S&P 500 -0.32%, FTSE +0.10%, DAX +0.33%, CAC -0.18%, Nikkei -0.28%, Shanghai +0.35%.
Gold prices have fallen overnight currently down 1.95%, at $1223 an ounce, WTI Crude Oil has given back yesterday’s gains and is currently trading at $39.75 a barrel.
Current indicative rates:
NZDUSD 0.6705 -0.5%
NZDEUR 0.5995 -0.2%
NZDGBP 0.4750 0.1%
NZDJPY 75.32 -0.6%
NZDAUD 0.8910 0.7%
NZDCAD 0.8858 0.7%
Upcoming Data releases (NZST):
- 10:45 - Trade Balance
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Dan Bell is the senior currency strategist at HiFX in Auckland. You can contact him here »
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