Trade tariff news over the past couple of days has benefited the Australian Dollar (AUD) as risk markets took a holiday after President Trump said he was imposing tariffs on China, Canada and Mexico. The NZD made small gains last week from 0.9060 (1.1040) to close at 0.9090 (1.1000). Monday’s open lifted the AUD to trade into morning sessions at 0.9035 (1.1070). Australian Retail Sales surprised us when figures showed a less than dire -0.7% forecast, coming in at -0.1% in January. All eyes will be on NZ employment data printing Wednesday which is expected to show a rise to over 5.0% from the current 4.8%, almost certainly weakening the NZD. In a couple of weeks, the RBNZ meet and should cut rates by 50 points possibly more if employment data releases poorly. The NZD will be doing well to stay in the 90’s
Current Level: 0.9040
Resistance: 0.9090
Support: 0.9020
Last Weeks Range: 0.9034 – 0.9091