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The Opening Bell: Where currencies start on Thursday, January 18, 2018

Currencies
The Opening Bell: Where currencies start on Thursday, January 18, 2018

By Dan Bell

The NZDUSD opens at 0.7314 (mid-rate) this morning.

The NZD came under pressure yesterday afternoon following the release of the ANZ commodity price index result for December. The index fell for the third month in succession, down 2.2% from November, with a 5.6% fall in dairy prices leading the way. The move lower proved to be short-lived, with the NZD rebounding strongly against the USD as London and Europe entered the market.

US industrial production increased more than expected in December, with the Federal Reserve reporting industrial production surged 0.9% after edging down by 0.1% in November. Economists had forecast a 0.4% increase.

As mentioned in yesterday morning’s report the bank of Canada hiked its cash rate by 0.25% to a rate of 1.25%, the hike was all but priced in with the CAD showing little reaction to the announcement. The increase in the cash rate was the third since July 2017.

Crypto currencies have extended their sharp fall overnight, the news that South Korea and China are planning a crackdown on the digital currency market has seen the bitcoin price plummet below USD10k from its USD20k peak in December.

During our trading day Australia’s monthly employment report will dictate direction for the NZDAUD cross rate, while overnight tonight China’s quarterly GDP data release should prove to be the highlight.

Global equity markets are mixed - Dow +0.73%, S&P 500 +0.53, FTSE -0.39%, DAX -0.47%, CAC -0.36%, Nikkei -0.35%, Shanghai +0.24%.

Gold prices are little changed $1,335 an ounce. WTI Crude Oil prices are up 0.6% trading at $63.93 a barrel.

Current indicative rates:

NZDUSD 0.7314 0.6%
NZDEUR  0.5963 0.4%
NZDGBP 0.5263 -0.3%
NZDJPY 80.94 0.5%
NZDAUD 0.9131 -0.1%
NZDCAD 0.9058 0.2%
GBPNZD 1.9001 0.3%

Upcoming Data releases (NZST):

  • 13:30 Australian Employment Report

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Dan Bell is the senior currency strategist at HiFX in Auckland. You can contact him here »

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