FX News

Australia

Seasonally adjusted construction figures disappointed Wednesday after numbers showed a declining sector. The total construction for September fall 2.8% for the quarter based on predictions of 0.9% growth. With Melbourne and Sydney house prices dropping recently this follows a trend which could follow through well into 2019. Comments from last week’s RBA minutes concentrated on the importance of the Australian Dollar playing a part in setting future monetary policy. Its business as usual for the RBA unless a sudden market shock event was to surprise. In the event of a strengthening global economy, the effect on the Australian economy and the outcome on the exchange rate of the AUD would be pivotal. Fed chairman Powell spoke Wednesday night making dovish comments towards further tightening bias which turned markets to risk on with the Aussie Dollar pushing north versus the big dollar. Private Capital Expenditure released at little light at -0.5% based on predictions of 1.1% but had no real effect on price.   

New Zealand

The New Zealand Dollar, surprisingly, after running the numbers has been the strongest currency of the main basket since August 2 2019 outperforming everything with the greenback a close second. On August 2 we were trading around the 0.6780 area compared to today’s price of 0.6860 level. Clearly this is no huge shift in price action but with a short spell to 0.6420 it shows how resilient the NZD has been compared to its rivals which have all devalued in comparison. Adrian Orr delivered his Financial Stability report Wednesday saying the NZ financial system is sound and while offshore trade risks still are a little unsettling, economic risks have abated. LVR lending ratios were lowered in favour of the investor and home owner suggesting credit banking credit risks are in a good spot currently. ANZ Business confidence printed bang on expectations with no surprises. Interests now lies with G20 tomorrow.     Read more

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Market Overview:

The New Zealand Dollar was first out of the blocks Monday morning with Retail Sales printing much worse than markets predicted. The total value of retail sales increased 0.0% from the previous quarter with growth in the Waikato region up 2.2%. The real tale though was that markets were expecting figures to be much better around the 1.0% mark so 0.0% was disappointing. The New Zealand Dollar falling away sharply continuing its momentum to the downside from last week’s risk off close continuing as the week’s worst performer against the main basket. In a week of low volume trading we saw super thin conditions with US Thanksgiving and Japanese Holiday holidays. Late Friday it was good to see most currencies show a bit of movement albeit to the downside from the rather stagnant week we had. Risk off themes we think will continue this week with Brexit leading the way. The EU has officially endorsed Theresa May’s terms of the UK’s withdrawal agreement bringing an end to negotiations which have gone on now for 20 months. The tough part begins this week when Theresa May will now entice the UK Parliament to agree on the terms of the agreement, she will spend the next fortnight travelling the country selling the deal before a parliamentary vote which will take place in early December. China will front at this week’s G20 summit in Argentina showing the world that they are cutting their reliance of exports in an effort to derail Trump’s government of allies in the ongoing trade war. Last week US trade representative Lighthizer said that China has not changed its tactics or practices and that this has dampened hopes for an agreement at the upcoming summit. China reacted by saying this was totally unacceptable and that the US government has broken its commitments to world trade organisation members. Beijing current account is nearly neutral after peaking in 2008 at 421 Billion surplus. Even with China’s weak equity market and slowing economy China are still unwilling to budge, China exports continue to grow based on recent data despite the tariffs. Markets are unsure how this will eventually be resolved but with further uncertainty and perhaps negativity this week we expect the recent risk averse theme to continue. Crude Oil was the biggest mover Friday when it was devalued by over 6.5% to 50.70 narrowly escaping price action in the 49’s after traders liquidated the asset after Trump’s earlier calls for lower oil prices and the global growth outlook weighed heavy. This week should see reasonable excitement with Fed members speaking and RBNZ, Adrian Orr Wednesday around financial stability. Read more

Market Overview

Currency markets ended the week uneventfully after a huge week of Brexit related headlines. Currencies took a much earned breather with direction extremely tough to pick later in the week. The weakest currency of the main players the British Pound depreciated over 1.1% against the US Dollar and 3.1% against the surging kiwi Dollar. The New Zealand Dollar remains the strongest currency two weeks straight with analysts a tad baffled as to the ongoing bust through key resistance levels. A shift in Fed speak from Philadelphia Fed Reserve Harker rocked the boat when he said he wasn’t convinced a hike in December is the correct move to make citing rising uncertainty of economic outlook. Fed’s Evans also summarised by saying international trade is slower with Brexit and the US housing market all creating global uncertainties. It was his opinion though that these factors were not enough to make changes to the current monetary trajectory. This week’s RBA minutes looks to be a key headline this week when they will summarise the November meeting, with more than likely a hawkish bias based on recent positive economic data. US and China trade discussions have surfaced again over the weekend after weeks of halted communications. Both sides are working together closely to arrive at a long term solution with Donald Trump and Xi Jinping expected to meet again later in the month at the G20 summit in Argentina. Meanwhile Vice president Pence spoke with Xi Jinping at the Papua New Guinea Asia Pacific economic summit saying he was concerned China never had any intention of reaching a consensus – the Papua New Guinea prime minister saying the entire world is worried about the ongoing tensions between the two nations. They still appear a world away with negotiating a sustainable agreement. Brexit carnage will continue this week leaving the British Pound venerable again to whipsaw movement. Recent headlines are suggesting a vote of no confidence is building steam with Theresa May saying if she was ousted it wouldn’t make Brexit any easier. Last week Brexit secretary Dominic Raab and work and pensions secretary Esther Mcvey resigned in protest of May’s Brexit plan. US and Japanese Bank holiday Friday with Thanksgiving should bring an orderly end to the week. Read more

Australia

More positive data has supported the Australian Dollar with key employment data Thursday doing the business. Wages (Wage Price Index) rose 0.6% in the quarter to September and 2.3% y/y with statistics showing improved labour market conditions and the official unemployment rate dropped from 5.1% to 5.0%. Jobs rose 32,800 in October compared to 20,000 markets were predicting led by full time jobs participation. The RBA has kept the cash rate on hold at 1.5% for over two years now, although they have recently acknowledged stronger employment and reasonably quick economic growth. The Australian pushed higher on the releases across the board reaching a five week high 0.7280 against the US Dollar. With recent falls in Crude Oil prices falling to below 60.00 the Australian Dollar has been sensitive to these downward moves as the economy is commodity based. With monetary policy minutes on Tuesday we should see further hawkish bias based on this week’s positive data.

New Zealand

The New Zealand Dollar is still riding high on last week’s strong employment figures, the best performing currency across the eight major players since the 7th of November. US Equity markets have declined in value over the week, but the kiwi has remained staunch. Better than expected Chinese data Tuesday boosted risk sentiment when Industrial Production released at 5.9% after 5.8% was forecasted. The fear though is that the with deadlines approaching on trade tariffs, manufacturers have boosted production to avoid the new levy in January skewing the figures from potentially a weaker result. The main event news this week has been with Brexit updates, affecting risk sentiment during Wednesday’s overnight sessions but able to break the kiwi into any sort of bearish mood which was highly unusual.   Read more

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Markets are still figuring out what it all means post US elections and Fed policy announcement. Initially the reaction has been mixed but with a general US Dollar up theme and risk on markets. We are still looking at Fed policy normalisation at a time where there is heaps of downside risks including global trade. Any downside to equity markets and sentiment from here will not bode well for risk associated products and could bring back topside failures in major currency pairs. With a US Holiday Monday celebrating veterans Day markets should ease into the week. The New Zealand Dollar was the standout performer last week with unemployment dropping to a 2008 low of 3.9% from the 4.4% markets were expecting. With risk factors this week expected to drive price action we could see the kiwi ease back towards last week’s open of 0.6650 levels.  EU and UK negotiators are close to a breakthrough with both sides aiming to get political approval on the Irish border backdrop. President Trump has upset fire besieged California when he tweeted about the mismanagement of forestland and threatened to cut federal funding to the state. Fires in southern California have killed more than two dozen people and destroyed over 6,500 buildings forcing the evacuation of over 250,000 people. The fires are the worst in California history with Trump expressing no sympathy for those caught in the fires, instead using the catastrophic event to criticise the state’s environmental regulations. We have several key data releases on the economic docket but geopolitical news could influence shifts in currencies the most. Read more

Australia

Tuesday’s RBA cash rate announcement turned out as we predicted summarising recent rhetoric regarding monetary policy and retaining the current rate at 1.50%. The current rates are consistent with sustainable economic growth which has been revised up for 2018 and 2019. The RBA also think the unemployment rate will reduce to around 4.75% in 2020 with a lift in Wage growth. The elephant in the room was the ongoing pessimistic view of the housing market. The RBA is becoming uncomfortable with the declines in Sydney and Melbourne prices. If credit tightens we could certainly see values go south putting a squeeze on consumer behaviour. US Midterm election voting caused market volatility Wednesday but as results were published suggesting the Republicans would retain control of the senate risk markets improved and the Australian Dollar posted fresh highs.  Read more

This mornings NZ Jobless rate has pushed the NZD/USD to a 3 month high of 0.6732.

Figures releases today at 10.45 has seen the NZ unemployment rate plummet from 4.4% to 3.9% surprising markets, the lowest level since August 2008. Reflecting a sharp drop in the number of unemployed was the increase in the number of employed people jumping from 0.5% to 1.1%. One would expect the monetary policy statement tomorrow to now be quite hawkish. The NZD/AUD has jumped to trade above 0.9300.

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Australia

Choppy conditions this week have seen the Australian Dollar bounce around, but a strong rally in the past 24 hours has seen the AUD currently trade just over 0.7200. Generally the Aussie Dollar has held its value on the crosses over the week with only the NZD really making gains. Australian CPI figures printed down on expectations around 0.4% from the 0.5% markets were expecting highlighting inflationary pressures remain weak. According to Aussie stats consumer price inflation grew only 1.9% to September down on the 2.1% growth through to June. Weak Chinese manufacturing data put added pressure on the Aussie along with end of month repositioning of off balance sheet risk. But then trade Balance data boosted the Aussie Dollar Thursday when figures reported a 3.02B surplus based on markets expectations on 1.71B.  Attention is now on Australian Retail Sales today and US Non-Farm Payroll tomorrow morning to close the week. Read more