HiFX morning Update, March 19, 2019

The NZDUSD opens at 0.6848 (mid-rate) this morning.

It’s been another subdued start to the trading week with investors happy to sit on the side lines and wait for Thursday’s data deluge before positioning their books.

Market consensus is that the Federal Reserve will downwardly revise their interest rate hike projections on Thursday morning. At their December meeting the Fed’s “dot plot” which outlines where each committee member expects rates to be at the end of each year, showed members expected the Fed would hike rates another 2 times this year following on from 4 hikes in 2018. Since the December meeting and on the back of a sharp fall in headline inflation (consumer price growth has fallen to 1.5% over the past 2 months, well below its 2.0% target) the new FOMC dot-plot forecasts are now expected to indicate no further policy tightening in 2019.

The British Pound has given back some of its recent gains after UK Prime Minister Theresa May cautioned that the planned Brexit vote due later this week could be delayed. Overnight Commons speaker John Bercow said he would not allow a third Brexit vote on "substantially the same" motion as MPs rejected last week.

This morning’s Westpac consumer sentiment report along with the RBA’s monetary policy minutes are likely to be the highlights during our trading day.

Global equity markets are mixed, - Dow -0.04, S&P 500 +0.09, FTSE +0.98%, DAX -0.25%, CAC +0.14%, Nikkei +0.62%, Shanghai +2.47%.

Gold prices are little changed trading at $1,301 an ounce. WTI Crude Oil prices have edged higher overnight, up 0.9% trading at $59.03 a barrel.

ends

© Scoop Media