David Chaston details the key news overnight in 90 seconds at 9 am in association with Bank of New Zealand, including news that the key trend overnight has been the strengthening kiwi dollar.
It has been rising against most currencies, and has pushed up to 79.35 US cents as international markets get more comfortable with risk. US earnings reports are coming in as the markets expected.
But it is more than that in our case. We are rising against the Aussie dollar too because we have a less risky export base in food whereas their minerals are at risk from a slowdown in China.
Against the euro we continue to push up the record level and we are now over 62 euro cents. Good if you are planning a vacation in Europe, and their falling currency value is the one hope they have to extract themselves out of the deep economic funk they are in.
An ECB spokesperson said overnight the Eurozone is in a very difficult situation because their growth is insufficient to get them out of their debt problems.
Their choices are very tough unless they print. But a falling currency may be one thing that can help. Industrial giant Philips issued a profit warning overnight on the basis of falling demand.
Elsewhere, India, Japan and China all readied themselves for a cutoff in oil from Iran, scrambling for alternate supplies.
But the oil price fell back from a sharp rise yesterday. That correction was too small and too late to stop a 5c per litre rise at our pumps, and maybe the local oil companies have acted too quickly – our rising currency should insulate us from such hikes.
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