New Zealand dollar trades below 59 US cents

Daily Currency Update

The Kiwi dollar is slightly weaker this morning when valued against the Greenback. The Kiwi dollar closed on Friday slightly down trading into the 0.5900 level and unable to find some lift. With little meaningful momentum coming from the Kiwi side of things, the NZD is fully exposed to broader market flows, leaving the Greenback to dictate the direction of the pair. Risk appetite is being supported by additional stimulus from China, bolstering the Antipodeans and putting a floor beneath any major declines. Official Chinese data showed that industrial production and retail sales figures rose faster than expected, providing further support for market sentiment heading into the weekend. The Kiwi is constrained near the middle of price congestion that has become familiar territory for this trading week, caught in a rough near-term range between 0.5930 and 0.5890.
On the data front today BusinessNZ will release the Performance of Services Index a survey of purchasing managers which asks respondents to rate the relative level of business conditions including employment, production, new orders, prices, supplier deliveries, and inventories. On Wednesday Statistics New Zealand will release the Current Account which is directly linked to currency demand. A rising surplus indicates that foreigners are buying more of the domestic currency to execute transactions in the country. This is among the few non-seasonally adjusted numbers reported on the calendar, as it's the data most commonly reported. The goods portion has no impact because it's a duplicate of the monthly Trade Balance data. On Thursday this week, we will see the release of NZ Gross Domestic Product (GDP) which is the broadest measure of economic activity and the primary gauge of the economy's health. Finally, on Friday we will see the Westpac Consumer Sentiment and Trade Balance figures.