The New Zealand dollar takes the top spot as the worst currency of the week on weak NZ economic updates leading to growing rate cut bets and global risk aversion sentiment.
Overlay of NZD Pairs: 1-Hour Forex Chart
New Zealand Headlines and Economic data
Monday:
- No signs of a direct catalyst for the weak start. One possibility could be that the Kiwi was tracking lower with its close trading partner, the Aussie, which fell to start the week on possibly the fall in gold (the U.S.-Mexico deal to avoid trade tariffs likely spark some waning of risk-off sentiment) or it’s possible that traders were selling Aussie ahead of the Australian jobs report. But the most likely argument is that traders are continuing to price in more rate cuts from the RBNZ this year as New Zealand data continues to disappoint.
Tuesday:
- Volume of total manufacturing sales in New Zealand rose 2.0%; the value of total manufacturing sales rose 1.0%
- Global risk sentiment began to shift more negative starting on Tuesday as the latest developments in the U.S.-China trade story seemed to turn negative; Donald Trump says he’s personally holding up trade deal with China ahead of G20
Wednesday:
- April 2019 month seasonally adjusted estimates a net gain of 4.9K immigrants
- New Zealand electronic retail spending falls in May
Thursday:
- Slight weakness once again likely due to the weakness in the Aussie after a net negative Australian employment update, which supports the argument that we’ll likely see more stimulus in the region.
Friday:
- BNZ New Zealand manufacturing index falls to 50.2 vs. 52.7 previous – this was highly likely the reason for the broad fall in in Kiwi pairs on Friday, a move that was possibly supported further during the U.S. trading session on a strong U.S. dollar after a positive U.S. retail sales update.
- New Zealand food prices rise in May by 0.7%, 1.7% from last year
