Bernard Hickey details the key news overnight in 90 seconds at 9 am in association with Bank of New Zealand, including news oil futures prices rose almost 2% overnight.
West Texas Intermediate rose to almost US$100/bbl while Brent crude rose to US$112 a barrel. This followed Goldman Sach's forecasts of rising commodity prices and a lift in its Brent crude forecast to US$130/bbl within 12 months because of concerns about supplies, particularly out of Libya.
See more here at Bloomberg on higher oil forecasts from Goldman and Morgan Stanley.
Meanwhile, the New Zealand dollar briefly blipped over 80 USc overnight, partly on a rise in commodity prices, but also on signs inflation may not be as controlled as the Reserve Bank thinks.
A Reserve Bank survey of inflationary expectations showed the outlook for the next 2 years at the top of the Reserve Bank's 1-3% target band, forcing some to wonder whether the bank might be forced to hike the Official Cash Rate sooner than the early 2012 dates that many economists have been forecasting.
See Alex Tarrant's article here on inflationary expectations.
This potential for an earlier rise in the OCR makes the currency relatively more attractive. The New Zealand dollar rose to near 3 year highs on a Trade Weighted Index (TWI) basis, thanks in large part to a rise in the New Zealand dollar to 75.6 Australian cents. This is back to pre-quake levels.
The New Zealand dollar also rose against the pound to 49.3p after Moody's said it may downgrade 14 British banks (See more here at Bloomberg) and China's Dagong ratings agency cut Britain's sovereign credit rating to A+, forcing the pound lower against many currencies. See more at The Telegraph on the Dagong ratings cut.
Back on March 10 after the Reserve Bank's rate cut, the New Zealand dollar was sitting at 44p and 72 Aussie cents. See our interactive chart here and below.
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