The New Zealand dollar edged higher today following yesterday’s huge slump even though macroeconomic data released during today’s trading session was negative. The plunge during the previous session was caused by worse-than-expected jobs data.
Statistics New Zealand released a report on building consents, showing a drop by 6.9% in March on a seasonally adjusted basis. The drop followed the increase by 1.7% in February.
Released yesterday, the employment report showed that the number of employed people in Australia fell 0.2% in the March quarter from the previous three months after inching up 0.1% in the December quarter. That is instead of rising 0.5% as analysts had predicted. At the same time, the unemployment rate edged down from 4.3% to 4.2%, in line with expectations.
Released on Tuesday, the ANZ Business Confidence improved marginally from -38.0 in March to -37.5 in April. The report said that “a net 38% of respondents reporting that they expect general business conditions to deteriorate in the year ahead”.
NZD/USD edged up from 0.6619 to 0.6627 as of 10:52 GMT today. EUR/NZD was at about 1.6895 after opening at 1.6904 and touching the daily low of 1.6876. NZD/JPY rose from 73.71 to 73.91.
If you have any questions, comments, or opinions regarding the New Zealand Dollar, feel free to post them using the commentary form below.
