HiFX morning Update, October 29, 2018

NZDUSD 0.6525 0.2%
NZDEUR 0.5725 -0.2%
NZDGBP 0.5081 0.0%
NZDJPY 72.83 -1.1%
NZDAUD 0.9195 -0.1%
NZDCAD 0.8531 0.2%
GBPNZD 1.9681 0.0%

The NZDUSD opens at 0.6525 (mid-rate) this morning.

Late on Friday a weakening yuan put downward pressure on the NZD with the NZDUSD rate falling to 0.6465 before recovering after PBoC Deputy Governor Pan Gongsheng said the central bank will take “macro-prudential measures to stabilise expectations in the foreign-exchange market”, and that it is confident the yuan will be kept basically stable at reasonable levels.

Friday’s US economic data releases were a mixed bag with the Commerce Department reporting economic growth in the third quarter slowed. The report showed GDP growth increased by 3.5% following on from Q2’s 4.2% final result. Economists had expected GDP growth to slow to 3.3%.

The University of Michigan downwardly revised its consumer sentiment index result for October, with Friday’s report revealing the index fell to 98.6 from 100.1 in September. The final result was below the preliminary reading of 99.0.

Further disappointing corporate results from Amazon and Google has seen global equity markets fall further. The Dow which fell 1.19% on Friday closed down 3% on the week, while the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 also posted weekly losses of 3.8% and 3.9% respectively.

Global equity markets fell further on Friday, - Dow -1.19%, S&P 500 -1.73%, FTSE -0.92%, DAX -0.94%, CAC -1.29%, Nikkei -0.40%, Shanghai -0.19%.

Gold prices pushed higher on Friday, up 0.4% closing out the week at $1,233 an ounce. WTI Crude Oil prices were little changed on Friday, closing out the week at $67.75 a third consecutive weekly fall.

ends

© Scoop Media