HiFX Morning Update, April 13 2017

HiFX Morning Update, April 13 2017

The NZDUSD opens at 0.6911 (mid-rate) this morning.

The NZD is trading at weekly lows against the majority of its trading partners as risk appetite continues to wane on the back of geopolitical tensions.

Overnight the UK unemployment rate remained unchanged at 4.7% in three months to February. A total of 1.56m people were unemployed from December to February, down by 45k on the previous three-month period and down by 141k on the year. The report also showed there are now 31.8m people in work, a rise of 312k on the year. The news was not all good with wage growth struggling to keep pace with inflation.

The US import prices unexpected declined in the month of March with the Labor Department report showing import prices fell by 0.2% after rising by a revised 0.4% in February. Economists had expected prices to edge up by 0.1%.

Crude oil inventories also surprised economists who had expected an increase of 87k barrels over the week when a report by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed inventories fell by 2.17m barrels in the week ending April 7th.

As expected the Bank of Canada kept its OCR unchanged at 0.50% while at the same time it upped its annual growth forecast to 2.6% in 2017, from its January forecast of 2.1%. The Canadian dollar strengthened on the back of the report.

This morning’s business NZ manufacturing Index and FPI m/m reports are expected to have little impact on the currency. The NZDAUD cross rate direction will be dominated by this afternoon’s Australian employments data and the RBA financial stability review.

Global equity markets remain mixed - Dow -0.25%, S&P -0.21%, FTSE -0.22%, DAX +0.13%, CAC -0.01%, Nikkei -1.04%, Shanghai -0.46%.

Gold prices are unchanged at $1,274 an ounce, WTI Crude Oil has inched lower down 0.3%trading at $53.03 a barrel.

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