HiFX Morning Update - August 14

HiFX Morning Update - August 14

NZDUSD 0.6565 -0.8%
NZDEUR 0.5890 -0.6%
NZDGBP 0.4205 -0.8%
NZDJPY 81.70 -0.6%
NZDAUD 0.8920 -0.6%
NZDCAD 0.8580 -0.2%

The NZDUSD opens at 0.6565 (mid-rate) this morning.

People’s Bank of China (PBOC) currency manipulation continued to rattle global investors as the central parity rate was fixed at 6.4010 against the USD, down 1.1% from Wednesday. That marks the third consecutive day of depreciation. Traders are going back and forth on whether the Federal Reserve will delay an interest rate hike in reaction to China's currency manipulation. A myriad of upbeat U.S. economic data might convince the Fed to go ahead with a rate hike anyways.

US retail sales rose in line with estimates in July (0.6%), there was a much bigger than expected increase in business inventories in June (0.8% vs 0.3%), and a modest increase in weekly jobless claims (274k vs 269k).

The minutes of the European Central Bank's July meeting showed that the balance of risk to the euro area's economic outlook was expected to remain on the downside.

Bank of Korea held their benchmark Rate unchanged at 1.5%

US and Asian equity markets are up, UK flat and Europe equity markets mixed - Dow +0.22%, S&P 500 +0.04%, FTSE -0.04%, DAX 0.82%, CAC -2.45%, Nikkei +0.99%, Shanghai +1.76%.

Gold prices are down $9 to $1114 an ounce, WTI Crude Oil is down $1.01 to $42.24 a barrel.
Upcoming Data releases:
10:45am – NZ Retail Sales q/q
10:45am – NZ Core Retail Sales q/q

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