The Kiwi was modestly lower overnight in relatively quiet trading, except against the GBP, which continues to be out of favour with traders due to fears of the UK exiting the EU.
New Home Sales in the U.S. were weaker than the market anticipated in January. Sales declined 9.2% to a 494k annualised pace after a 544k rate in December that was the strongest in 10 months. The January figure was majorly effected by the sales in the western U.S. which fell 32.1%, the biggest slump since May 2010.
Oil futures pared losses on Wednesday after the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported a 3.5 million-barrel climb in crude-oil supplies for the week ended Feb. 19. The market was expecting a 2 million barrel increase. The WTI price rose as a result, trading a high of 32.05.
A report issued by Deloitte showed that more than a third of public oil companies globally face bankruptcy. They surveyed 500 companies and found that 175 (35%) are facing “a combination of high leverage and low debt service coverage ratios”. That paints a fairly gloomy picture of the U.S. shale patch as it struggles to survive under mountains of debt.
Global equity markets are all lower except Shanghai: Dow -0.63%, S&P 500 -0.646%, FTSE -1.60%, DAX -2.64%, CAC -1.96%, Nikkei -0.85%, Shanghai +0.88%.
Gold prices are up 1.3% currently trading at $1239 an ounce. WTI Crude Oil is up 1.6% currently trading at $31.99 a barrel.
Current indicative rates:
NZDUSD 0.6642 -0.4%
NZDEUR 0.6028 -0.4%
NZDGBP 0.4774 0.6%
NZDJPY 74.09 -0.
NZDAUD 0.9241 -0.1%
NZDCAD 0.9127 -0.6%
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Dan Bell is the senior currency strategist at HiFX in Auckland. You can contact him here »
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