The New Zealand dollar continues its strong week, maintaining gains this morning due to a low US dollar, unaffected by weak Fonterra online auction results.After picking up from a sharp fall last week, the NZ dollar continues to push up hitting US73.40 at
The New Zealand dollar continues its strong week, maintaining gains this morning due to a low US dollar, unaffected by weak Fonterra online auction results.
After picking up from a sharp fall last week, the NZ dollar continues to push up hitting US73.40 at 8am from US73.35 at 5pm yesterday, and reached a week high of US73.60.
In ANZ's morning brief, it said a similar story is expected today for the kiwi as a weak US dollar ensures some strength by default and Fonterra's results this morning were less negative than some expectations.
Prices fell about 8.3 percent for all products in Fonterra's latest auction, taking the average price to $3080.
"Negative as this news is, most commentators picked a fall, so the result was not a surprise."
The NZ dollar received a boost from Australian dollar gains yesterday after the Reserve Bank of Australia left interest rates on hold, as expected.
The RBA is not expected to raise rates again in a hurry, although it may move again before the end of the year. Its accompanying statement to the third consecutive no-change was fairly neutral, although it contained a mildly hawkish economic view.
The NZ dollar was buying A80.41 this morning from A80.50 at 5pm yesterday.
Against the euro, the kiwi lost some steam, slipping to 0.5548 euro, compared to 0.5568 yesterday.
It also weakened against the yen from 63.38 yesterday to 63.00 at 8am today.
The trade weighted index fell to 67.67 from 67.78.
Key domestic data, the Household Labour Force Survey, is expected tomorrow. Economists predict the unemployment rate will increase from 6 percent to between 6.3 and 6.5 percent.
