Daily Currency Update
NZD - New Zealand DollarThe New Zealand Dollar lost nearly one cent vs the U.S Dollar on Friday, having opened around 0.6690 levels and in the absence of any local data the Kiwi was dragged lower mostly during the North American session to touch an eventual low of 0.6602. The main catalyst for the move was upbeat U.S. payrolls data which was well above consensus estimates. The NZD was one of the worst performers of the G10 currencies and is back in the lower-half of its trading range for this year. Looking ahead, it’s a particular quiet week on the data front. Economic data is limited to June electronic card retail sales figures due out on Thursday and Business PMI numbers due out on Friday. From a technical perspective, the NZD/USD pair is currently trading at 0.6623. We continue to expect support to hold on moves approaching 0.6600 followed by 0.6560 while now any upward push will likely meet resistance around 0.6690.
Key Movers
The US Dollar Index which measures the strength of the Greenback against a basket of six major currencies jumped to a three-week high following a sharp rebound in U.S jobs growth for the month of June. The economy added 224k new jobs, well above consensus expectations for 160k, and smashing May’s number of 75k. The market shrugged off the rise in unemployment from 3.6% to 3.7% as now the view is that Federal Reserve will not cut rates so aggressively of 50bp but will be 25bp this month. Over in the UK, house prices fell 03% in June House prices fell 0.3% in June according to Halifax, indicating that prices are continuing to struggle against the backdrop of Brexit uncertainty. Away from the numbers, the leadership race and chatter over Brexit also pegged the Pound back from any breakout on the week. The Pound ended the week down by 1.38% to $1.2521.
Expected Ranges
- NZD/USD: 0.6560 - 0.6680 ▼
- NZD/AUD: 0.9430 - 0.9540 ▼
- GBP/NZD: 1.8750 - 1.9000 ▲
- NZD/EUR: 0.5830 - 0.5960 ▼
- NZD/CAD: 0.8590 - 0.8690 ▼