HiFX morning Update July 23 2018

The NZDUSD opens at 0.6791(mid-rate) this morning.

The USD continued to slide throughout Friday’s trading session following Trump’s comments that the Federal Reserve's plan to gradually raise interest rates could hurt recent economic progress. Late on Friday Trump tweeted "The United States should not be penalized because we are doing so well,” and that "tightening now hurts all that we have done," which led to a fresh round of USD selling.

Adding fuel to the fire, St. Louis Fed President James Bullard commented that the Fed should delay further rate hikes. Bullard remarked that the US is facing
Imminent yield curve inversion which is a naturally bearish signal for the economy.

The Canadian dollar received a boost on Friday with both consumer inflation for June and retail sales for May printing ahead of expectations. Data from Statistics Canada showed
CPI for the month of June inched up by 0.1% (exp unchanged) while retail sales increased by 2% in May following a 1.2% fall in April. Economists had forecast sales to rise by 1%.

Germany's producer prices increased at the fastest pace in 9-months in June, growing at 3% y/y and faster than the 2.7% increase recorded in May.

There is very little in the way of local data releases over the coming week, with the ECB monetary policy statement on Thursday night along with Friday’s US GDP data releases the pick of the offshore drivers.

Global equity markets were mixed on Friday, - Dow -0.03%, S&P 500 -0.09%, FTSE -0.07%, DAX -0.98%, CAC -0.35%, Nikkei -0.29%, Shanghai +2.05%.

Gold prices edged higher on Friday up 0.7% closing out the week at $1,231 an ounce. WTI Crude Oil prices fell 2% on Friday, to close out the week at $66.64 a barrel.

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