The NZD finished the week with somewhat of a whimper, falling 0.1% against the USD to 0.8660.
However, in the context of an outstanding week, a bit of profit-taking seems understandable.
Last week was the NZD’s strongest since the first week of February.
The NZD also pared its gains against the EUR and the GBP, while the somewhat inexplicable JPY weakness meant that the NZD/JPY was the odd one out, rising 0.5% to 89.0.
The AUD was the only major currency to outperform the NZD last week, and NZD/AUD was 0.35% lower for the week at 0.9360.
Today sees the ANZ business survey, which would be hard-pressed to beat the 20-year high set in February.
We think the more important news would be in the pricing intentions component, which rose to above-average levels at the last reading.
The other data to watch for this week will be Fonterra’s Global Dairy Trade auction on Wednesday morning. Prices broke below a well-worn range at the last auction.
We expect dairy prices to continue to fall over the year, reducing a key support for the NZD.
In that context, Thursday’s ANZ commodity price index will also be worth keeping an eye on.
Source: Interest
