The NZD opens at 0.6643.
In relatively quiet trading, the NZD is off a touch. This is not too surprising giving the large data day on Thursday. With the FOMC statement in the early morning and RBNZs own statement and rate decision a little later Thursday has the potential to be a large mover. The market does widely expect the US to hike, and the RBNZ to hold. Leading into something like that though, it is not uncommon for the market to track sideways, within a relatively small range.
Business confidence out of New Zealand will be closely watched as well tomorrow, as the market will be wary of another weak number. Whilst not yet flowing through to GDP statistics, the worry is that business confidence is a leading indicator, and could signal a slowdown ahead.
In other news, oil trades up another 2%, and looks in danger of testing the July high of $75.27. While this would be considered good news for the Canadian Dollar, it does not help the confidence of those with inefficient cars. The wider question is whether globally this will act as a tailwind for inflation.
Quiet data day today, with BOJs Kuroda speech being the highlight. As you can see, a very quiet day.
Global equity markets were off for the day, while Japan and China were actually off for a bank holiday - Dow -0.57%, S&P 500 -0.30%, FTSE -0.42%, DAX -0.64%, CAC -0.33%, Nikkei -%, Shanghai -%.
Gold prices are up a touch 0.3% to USD$1,203 an ounce, while WTI Crude Oil prices were up 2% to US$72.21 per barrel.
Current indicative rates:
| NZDUSD | 0.6643 | -0.3% |
| NZDEUR | 0.5647 | -0.4% |
| NZDGBP | 0.5063 | -0.6% |
| NZDJPY | 74.87 | 0.0% |
| NZDAUD | 0.9154 | -0.3% |
| NZDCAD | 0.8596 | -0.2% |
| GBPNZD | 1.9749 | 0.6% |
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Dan Bell is the senior currency strategist at xe money transfer in Auckland. You can contact him here »
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