Bernard Hickey talks with HiFX Senior Dealer Dan Bell about the week's extraordinary commodities and currencies moves, and looks at what might shift global currency markets in the week ahead.
The noise around a potential restructuring of Greek debt has dominated action on global currency markets in recent days.
Fears of contagion in the European banking system continues to weaken the Euro vs the US dollar.
Dan Bell says the key level to watch in days and weeks to come is the US$1.40 level, below which the Euro could slump if the situation in Greek worsens and it spreads to Spain.
Big street protests in Spain and the potential for election losses by the ruling Socialist government will also be a focus on global markets.
The New Zealand dollar has been around 3 month highs vs the Euro on the Euro weakness.
The New Zealand budget's relative tightness did however give some support to the local currency.
Elswhere, concerns about a US growth slowdown and weaker commodity prices is weighing on 'risky' currencies such as the New Zealand and Australian dollars.
The end of the US Federal Reserve's Quantitative Easing programme on June 30 is also a focus, although most see its zero interest rate policy (ZIRP) on hold for some time.
Markets will also watch China's efforts to slow its economy and how this might flow on to New Zealand and Australia.
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