While the New Zealand dollar was attempting to rally earlier today despite risk aversion prevailing on the market, currently the kiwi has retreated, trading below the opening level against many of its most-traded rivals. Domestic macroeconomic data did nothing to help the currency of New Zealand.
Statistics New Zealand reported that the Producer Price Index input fell 0.9% in the March quarter after rising 1.6% in the previous three months. The PPI output declined 0.5% following the 0.7% increase in the December quarter.
The seasonally adjusted BusinessNZ Performance of Manufacturing Index was at 53.0 in April, up from 52.0 in March. Yet the report was not entirely positive as BusinessNZ’s executive director for manufacturing Catherine Beard explained:
Seasonally adjusted values over the last 6–7 months have remained static between the 52–54 mark range. Although this indicates the sector is still in expansion mode, the unadjusted series has tended to trend down since late 2017. If this trend continues, it will eventually have negative consequences for the main published result.
Meanwhile, the market sentiment deteriorated further after the news that the US-China trade negotiations hit a serious roadblock. It looks like China simply does not want to continue negotiations, at least for now, believing that the United States do not sincerely want to find a compromise.
NZD/USD slipped from 0.6534 to 0.6528 as of 11:31 GMT today despite rallying to 0.6546 earlier. NZD/JPY declined from 71.77 to 71.55. EUR/NZD was at 1.7095, close to the opening level of 1.7091.
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