HiFX morning Update, August 22 2018

The NZDUSD opens at 0.6688 (mid-rate) this morning.

President Trump’s comments on the Federal Reserve's interest rate hikes has continued to hurt the USD overnight.

During an interview with Reuters earlier in the week, Trump said that he was "not thrilled" by Fed chairman Jerome Powell’s decision to raise rates and went as far as suggesting that the Fed should do "what's good for the country" and hold off on future rate hikes. Trump again accused China and Europe of manipulating their currencies adding that "during this period of time I should be given some help by the Fed, as other countries are accommodated.

Earlier this morning the latest Global Dairy Trade (GDT) auction resulted in another fall for the overall index which was down 3.6% from the previous auction a fortnight ago. The index price has now fallen in five of the last six auctions held between June and August.

The news that the UK budget balance posted the biggest surplus for July since 2000 saw the pound push higher against the majors. The Office for National Statistics report showed public sector net borrowing, excluding public sector banks, was in surplus by GBP 2.0b in July well above the expected GBP1.1b and 1.0b greater than the July 2017 surplus.

Further direction for the NZD should come from this morning’s quarterly retail sales report which is forecast to increase by 0.4% following a 0.1% increase in Q1.

Global equity markets with the exception of the FTSE have pushed up , - Dow +0.44%, S&P 500 +0.44%, FTSE -0.34%, DAX +0.43%, CAC +0.54%, Nikkei +0.09%, Shanghai +1.31%.

Gold prices have pushed higher, up 0.5% trading at $1,194 an ounce WTI Crude Oil prices are up 0.8% trading at $65.90 a barrel.

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