Daily Currency Update
NZD - New Zealand DollarThe New Zealand dollar is slightly stronger this morning when valued against the greenback on the back of a recovery in risk appetite, seeing a rebound in US equities and providing some support for the Kiwi dollar. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern revealed Cabinet's decision to keep Auckland under alert level 2.5 restrictions and the rest of New Zealand at level 2 for at least another week. Auckland and the rest of New Zealand will remain under the current settings until Monday, September 21. If there continues to be no cases outside of Auckland, the rest of New Zealand will move to level 1.On the data front yesterday we saw the release of Overseas visitor arrivals which were down by 251,800 to 3,800 in July 2020, compared with July 2019. This morning we saw the release of Westpac Consumer Sentiment. Consumer confidence slipped again in September, with the Westpac McDermott-Miller Consumer Confidence Index falling to a level of 95.1. That’s down from 97.1 in June and the lowest level of consumer confidence since the financial crisis in 2008. Looking ahead this week in New Zealand and tomorrow we will see the release of the current account which is directly linked to currency demand as a rising surplus indicates that foreigners are buying more of the domestic currency to execute transactions in the country.
Key Movers
The US dollar slipped on Monday against its major counterparts after a positive news about a COVID-19 vaccine lifted the mood in global equity markets. Including reports of Oracle winning the battle for the U.S. arm of TikTok. Drugmaker AstraZeneca on Monday said it resumed its British clinical trials of its COVID-19 vaccine, one of the most advanced in development, helping kick off a rally in stocks.In the UK the Great British Pound is slightly higher this morning when valued against the Greenback although continues to remain the weakest currency amid Brexit-related turmoil. Overnight the GBP/USD pair reached a daily high of 1.2918 on the back of the dollar’s weakness. The Pound Sterling had its worst week in six months last week, as investors grew more pessimistic about the chances of a Brexit deal being reached before the December 2020 deadline. Looking ahead tonight and the UK will publish its latest employment data. The ILO unemployment rate for the three months to July is foreseen at 4.1% up from the previous 3.8%. The number of unemployed people in the UK is foreseen rising to 100K in August, from 94.4K in the previous month.
Expected Ranges
- NZD/USD: 0.6650 - 0.6750 ▲
- AUD/EUR: 0.5550 - 0.5750 ▲
- GBP/NZD: 1.9035 - 1.9235 ▼
- NZD/AUD: 0.9100 - 0.9300 ▲
- NZD/CAD: 0.8720 - 0.8920 ▲