It was a fairly quiet end to the trading week with the USD closing slightly higher against the EUR and Yen and softening against both the NZD and AUD as the partial shutdown of the US Government became the longest ever when it reached its 22nd day on Saturday.
As expected consumer prices in the US inched lower in December with Friday’s Labour Department report showing its consumer price index dipped by 0.1% from November, reflecting a sharp fall in both oil and gas prices. The core consumer price index which excludes food and energy prices rose in line with expectations, with the index increasing a modest 0.2% from its November reading.
Economic growth in the UK eased further in the three months to November but not as much as forecast. The Office for National Statistics reported GDP slowed to 0.3% down from 0.4% in the three months to October. The pace of expansion was the slowest since the three months to May but was better than the expected 0.1% result.
The week ahead will be dominated by Wednesday’s UK Brexit vote with Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn vowing to table a vote of no confidence in the government, which could trigger a general election should Theresa May fail to gain enough support to pass her Brexit deal.
Global equity market closed out the week mixed, - Dow -0.02%, S&P 500 -0.01%, FTSE -0.36%, DAX -0.31%, CAC -0.51%, Nikkei +0.97%, Shanghai +0.74%.
Gold prices edged higher Friday, closing out the week at $1,287 an ounce. WTI Crude Oil prices snapped a 9-day winning streak on Friday down 2.0% trading at $51.91 a barrel.
Current indicative rates:
| NZDUSD | 0.6825 | +0.6% |
| NZDEUR | 0.5958 | +1.1% |
| NZDGBP | 0.5312 | -0.1% |
| NZDJPY | 74.01 | +0.6% |
| NZDAUD | 0.9467 | +0.3% |
| NZDCAD | 0.9055 | +0.9% |
| GBPNZD | 1.8825 | +0.1% |
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Dan Bell is the senior currency strategist at xe money transfer in Auckland. You can contact him here »
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