NZ dollar gains as global mood improves on US-China progress

Monday 4th November 2019

The New Zealand dollar firmed against the greenback on renewed global optimism after the US and China indicated progress was being made on an interim trade deal.

The kiwi was trading at 64.44 US cents at 7:50 am in Wellington from 64.26 cents late Friday in New York. The trade-weighted index was at 70.91 versus 70.72.

There was “consensus on principles” during a “serious and constructive” telephone call between the main trade negotiators, Reuters reported the Chinese Commerce Ministry saying.

US President Donald Trump told reporters “I don’t like to talk about deals until they happen, but we’re making a lot of progress.”

“The positive noises might give a further boost to risk-related assets over the next 24 hours,” said Kiwibank senior trader Mike Shirley.

Shirley also said that while the US jobs data was positive – with 128,000 jobs created in October versus the 85,000 expected in a Reuters survey of economists - “It wasn’t good enough to make anyone think the Fed should take their foot off the monetary policy easing pedal,” which weighed on the greenback.

Prior months were also revised upward and the employment gains in August and September combined were 95,000 more than previously reported, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said. The US unemployment rate held steady at 3.6 percent.

Domestically the focus will now shift to New Zealand’s third-quarter jobs data on Wednesday as well as the Reserve Bank of Australia’s cash rate decision tomorrow.

“Despite no change to policy, forward guidance will be keenly awaited,” said ANZ FX/rates strategist Sandeep Parekh.

The New Zealand dollar was at 93.12 Australian cents from 92.95, at 49.83 British pence from 49.62, at 57.69 euro cents from 57.57, at 69.69 yen from 69.51 and 4.5317 Chinese yuan from 4.5526.

(BusinessDesk)

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