XE Morning Update

The NZDUSD opens at 0.6416 (mid-rate) this morning.

Mixed jobs data out of the US on Friday has seen the USD weaken against the majority of its rivals.

Friday’s US non-farm-payrolls revealed employment rose by 130k jobs in August following on from a downwardly revised 159k jobs in July. The result fell short of expectations with economist’s forecasting an increase of 158k jobs following on from July’s previously reported 164k result.

As expected US unemployment remains at 3.7% while hourly wages were up 0.4% marginally higher than the forecast 0.3% increase.

Speaking at a forum in Zurich Fed Chair Jerome Powell said that the Fed are “not forecasting or expecting a recession” and that the “most likely outlook is still moderate growth” on the back of a strong labour market, with inflation tipped to push back up. Mr Powell did however reiterate that the Fed are prepared to "act as appropriate" to sustain the US economic expansion.

China’s exports to the US fell sharply in August with the ongoing tariff war starting to bite. Yesterday’s data release showed exports to the US declined 16% in August, total exports were down 1% and imports declined 5.6% resulting in a trade surplus of $34.84b. Economists had forecast the trade surplus to dip to 44.3b from July’s 45.1b result.

Key data releases come late in the week with the latest ECB monetary policy statement and the US inflation data due for release in the early hours of Friday morning.

Global equity markets inched higher on Friday, - Dow +0.26%, S&P 500 +0.09%, FTSE +0.15%, DAX +0.54%, CAC +0.19%, Nikkei +0.54%, Shanghai +0.46%.

Gold prices edged down 1.2% on Friday closing out the week at $1,506 an ounce. WTI Crude Oil prices were little changed on Friday, closing out the week at $56.43 a barrel.

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