HiFX Morning Update, August 1 2016

HiFX Morning Update, August 1 2016

NZDUSD 0.7201 1.8%
NZDEUR 0.6445 0.9%
NZDGBP 0.5442 1.1%
NZDJPY 73.65 -1.2%
NZDAUD 0.9480 0.6%
NZDCAD 0.9381 0.7%

The NZDUSD opens at 0.7201 (mid-rate) this morning.

The NZD rallied against all its major trading partners on Friday, with the Japanese Yen being the only exception.

On Friday afternoon the BOJ disappointed the market by announcing further stimulus measures well short of market expectations. There had been wide speculation going into the meeting that the BOJ would cut its policy rate and go further into negative territory, but a 7-2 majority vote to keep rates unchanged saw the Yen rally and the USD tumble.

The news didn’t get any better for the USD after U.S. GDP the report for the second quarter came in much weaker than anticipated. Economists had expected GDP to spike by 2.6% compared to the 1.1% growth that had been reported for the previous quarter, instead the report showed gross domestic product rose by 1.2% in the second quarter following a downwardly revised 0.8% increase in Q1.

The week ahead is stacked with both domestic and international data releases, with tomorrow’s quarterly Inflation Expectations and Wednesday morning’s GDT Price Index the domestic highlights, while offshore we have monetary policy statements out of both the RBA (Tuesday)and the BOE (Thursday)as well as the all important U.S. employment reports due for release on Friday.

Global equity markets closed out the week mixed - Dow -0.13%, S&P 500 +0.16%, FTSE +0.05%, DAX +0.61%, CAC +0.44%, Nikkei +0.56%, Shanghai -0.50%.

Gold prices were up 1.1% on Friday rallying 2.8% over the course of the month closing on Friday at $1,350 an ounce, WTI Crude Oil also rallied on Friday up 1.2%, but plummeted 14% in July closing on Friday at $41.60 a barrel.

ends

© Scoop Media