Worldwide coronavirus cases surpasses 11.7M with over 540,000 deaths officially reported.
The New Zealand Dollar is feeling pretty good at the moment with the stars aligning the kiwi continues north. Driven by positive local and offshore news flow and the deteriorating coronavirus conditions offshore. Risk on moves are not moving in the normal ways we are used to seeing, with everything moving against the US Dollar. Equities are still at extremely high levels and the USD/JPY risk barometer is trading close to March lows in line with a weaker USD. The tone of everything moving together against the greenback looks set to continue for a while longer especially in the wake of higher coronavirus infection numbers in the US. Overvalued NZD and AUD levels are a concern amid coronavirus in Victoria worsening with new lockdowns in Melbourne. With US coronavirus out of hand as well, we could see risk markets taking hits over the following weeks. This could have a flow on effect for New Zealand economically. The RBNZ stance on monetary policy will come under strain at their next meeting on August 12 as a decrease from 0.25% looks unlikely, they may start to buy foreign assets to support the current QE program. With the government selling NZD the currency is only going to go one way.
Key Points…
- The Australian States of Victoria and New South Wales border was closed earlier in the week, now the Queensland border has also been shut to keep out Victorians as coronavirus cases surge
- Tokyo has reported a decrease of coronavirus in the past day with cases down from 106 to 75 Wednesday
- Coronavirus in the state of Florida is formally out of control with 41 hospitals at full capacity
- Texas hospitals are reporting they are fast running out of ICU capacity and have to come up with a plan to create new intensive care beds. The Texas governor has issued an order for face masks to be worn in the hardest hit areas, Texas new cases Wednesday was 9,979
- The Fed’s Bullard has come out swinging in the face of coronavirus sayings he expects unemployment to be at 8.0% by the end of the year and expects most unemployed to be back in the workforce within the next 3 months
- The World Health organisation reported its highest global one day spike in coronavirus over the weekend at just over 210,000 with worldwide daily cases consistently around the 200,000 mark
- Brexit negotiations kicked off again last week in Brussels, it’s the first time UK’s chief negotiator David Frost and his EU counterpart have met in person for some months due to the coronavirus outbreak. PM Johnson wants to secure a deal by the end of the UK summer at the latest, Barnier apparently offered an extension to the transmission period but this was rejected by Johnson