The NZDUSD opens at 0.6851 (mid-rate) this morning.
Friday trading was dominated by news that the UK and European Union were close to agreeing the first phase of Brexit negotiations with the GBP pushing higher during our trading session before retracing the move on the actual announcement with investors taking profit and “selling the fact”.
The USD benefited from better than expected November jobs data with the US non-farm payroll employment increasing by 228k jobs following on from October’s downwardly revised 244k rise in jobs. Economists had forecast an increase of 200k jobs in November with October’s increase originally reported as a 261k increase.
According to the University of Michigan, US consumer sentiment in the month of December unexpectedly deteriorated. The preliminary reading which will be finalised later this month shows the sentiment index falling to 96.8 down from November’s final reading of 98.5 and well below expectations, with economists forecasting the index to edge up to 99.0.
The week ahead will be dominated by Central Bank announcements with the US, UK and the ECB all due to announce their final monetary policy statements of 2017.
Global equity markets rallied on Friday, - Dow +0.49%, S&P 500 +0.55%, FTSE +1.00%, DAX +0.83%, CAC +0.28%, Nikkei +1.39%, Shanghai +0.55%.
Gold prices edged lower on Friday, down 0.3% closing out the week at $1,247 an ounce, WTI Crude Oil prices surged higher on Friday, up 1.4% closing out the week $57.44 a barrel.
Current indicative rates:
NZDUSD 0.6851 0.1%
NZDEUR 0.5822 0.4%
NZDGBP 0.5121 0.4%
NZDJPY 77.75 0.7%
NZDAUD 0.9125 0.3%
NZDCAD 0.8809 0.4%
GBPNZD 1.9528 -0.4%
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Dan Bell is the senior currency strategist at HiFX in Auckland. You can contact him here »
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