The NZDUSD opens at 0.6875 (mid-rate) this morning.
Broad USD strength on the back of better-than-expected US economic data releases has seen the NZDUSD retrace yesterday morning’s sharp rise following the release of our quarterly employment report.
Ahead of this morning’s FOMC statement strong non-manufacturing and service data on top of slightly better than expected private sector employment report out of the US saw the greenback rise against all its major trading partners. The ADP report showed private sector employment climbed by 177k jobs in April after surging up by a downwardly revised 255k jobs in March. Economists had forecast an addition of 175k jobs in addition to the previously reported 263k jobs for the month of March.
US non- manufacturing and service sector growth both exceeded expectations with the service index rising to 53.1 (exp 52.5) and the non-manfacturing index spiking to 57.5 (exp 56.1).
There were no surprises in this morning’s FOMC statement where the Fed voted unanimously to leave its interest rate unchanged at 0.75% to 1%, although the statement has been viewed as slightly “hawkish” with the Fed still “expecting the economy to warrant gradual rate hikes.”
Global equity markets are mixed - Dow -0.09%, S&P 500 -0.21%, FTSE -0.21%, DAX +0.16%, CAC -0.06%, Nikkei Closed Shanghai -0.27%.
Gold prices continue to edge lower, down 0.6% currently trading at $1,247 an ounce. WTI Crude Oil are little changed currently trading at $47.81 a barrel.
Current indicative rates:
NZDUSD 0.6875 -0.8%
NZDEUR 0.6305 -0.6%
NZDGBP 0.5336 -0.5%
NZDJPY 77.43 -0.3%
NZDAUD 0.9261 0.6%
NZDCAD 0.9427 -0.9%
GBPNZD 1.8740 0.5%
Upcoming Data releases (NZST):
- 13:00 - ANZ Commodity Prices m/m
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Dan Bell is the senior currency strategist at HiFX in Auckland. You can contact him here »
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