The NZD is slightly softer against all it's major trading partners overnight after a bullish start to the week.
The U.S. Unemployment Claims in the week ending March 26, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 276,000, an increase of 11,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 265,000.
For 2015 as a whole, the U.K. current account deficit hit £96.2bn or 5.2% of GDP, the widest since records began in 1948 raising fears for the UK recovery and its future after a possible Brexit. The current account deficit reflects Britain’s trade gap with the rest of the world and the shortfall between money paid out by the UK and money coming in.
U.S. Natural-gas futures turned lower overnight after the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported that supplies of the commodity fell by 25 billion cubic feet for the week ended March 25. The forecast was for a decline of between 20 billion and 24 billion cubic feet.
Eurozone CPI annual inflation is expected at -0.1% in March 2016, up from -0.2% in February according to a flash estimate. Core CPI flash estimate year on years is 1.0% up from 0.8% previous, and ahead of market consensus at 0.9%
U.S. Non Farm Payrolls, Unemployment rate, Manufacturing PMI and Average Hourly Earnings are announced overnight tonight and will be closely watched by traders for direction in the USD.
Global equity markets are broadly lower : Dow -0.25%, S&P 500 -0.28%, FTSE -0.46%, DAX -0.81%, CAC -1.34%, Nikkei -0.71%, Shanghai +0.11%.
Gold price is currently down 0.8% at $1231 an ounce, WTI Crude Oil is up 0.1% at $38.32 a barrel.
Current indicative rates:
NZDUSD 0.6918 -0.2%
NZDEUR 0.6075 -0.6%
NZDGBP 0.4811 -0.2%
NZDJPY 77.82 -0.2%
NZDAUD 0.9025 -0.1%
NZDCAD 0.8981 - 0.1%
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Dan Bell is the senior currency strategist at HiFX in Auckland. You can contact him here »
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