The Opening Bell: Where currencies start on Friday, June 21, 2019

By the XE Corporate team

The NZDUSD opens higher at 0.6590 this morning.

The USD fell sharply across the board, pushing the NZDUSD through 1-week highs, after the US Federal Reserve signalled it was ready to cut interest rates to maintain economic momentum.

This is a continuation of central banks around the global joining the easier monetary policy party as they struggle against a weaker economic outlook, stubbornly low inflation, and uncertainty created by trade tensions. Overnight, the Bank of England cut its growth forecast and highlighted the negative impacts of trade wars and Brexit.

The EUR, JPY, and GBP all rose circa 0.5% against the USD overnight.

The NZD received a boost yesterday after the release of better than expected Q1 GDP numbers - annual GDP came in at 2.5%, versus 2.3% forecast, while the quarterly number was on the button at 0.6%.

There is no data on the domestic calendar today.

Global equity markets were higher on the day - Dow +0.9%, S&P 500 +0.9%, FTSE +0.3%, DAX +0.4%, CAC +0.3%, Nikkei +0.6%, Shanghai +2.4%.

Gold prices surged 2.8% to USD$1,390 an ounce. WTI Crude Oil prices soared 6.4% to US$57.17 per barrel on fears of a military confrontation between Iran and the US, after Iran shot down a US military drone, along with a drop in oil inventory numbers. Commodity and metal prices also benefited from the US Fed rate cut signal.

Current indicative rates:

Upcoming Data Releases (NZT):

• No local data today

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Marcus Phillips is the Affiliate manager at xe money transfer in Auckland. You can contact him here »