Australia, NZ dlrs hoard weekly gains, bump against resistance
Australia, NZ dlrs hoard weekly gains, bump against resistance
By Wayne Cole and Charlotte Greenfield
SYDNEY/WELLINGTON, April 13 (Reuters) – The Australian and New Zealand dollars inched higher on Friday as data showed China’s demand for commodities remained robust in March, leaving both currencies holding hefty gains for the week.
The dollar AUD=D4 nudged ahead to $0.7769, to be 1.3 percent firmer for the week, though it continued to meet stiff resistance around $0.7785.
Chinese trade data showed exports unexpectedly dipped in March but imports topped forecasts. for the first quarter, which smooth out the impact of the February Lunar New Year holidays, showed exports were still up a healthy 14 percent on the previous year, with imports rising almost 19 percent.
China’s imports of iron ore, Australia’s single biggest export earner, were steady at 271 million tonnes in the quarter thus defying speculation of a slowdown.
However, the threat of a Sino-U.S. trade war continued to lurk in the background with the Wall Street Journal reporting the White House thought its hard-line stance was working and planned to escalate the pressure on Beijing.
President Donald Trump also sowed confusion on Syria saying the U.S. might attack soon, or might not. things do actually settle down on trade and Syria that would be a very positive sign for the Aussie dollar as it would take away a big negative in terms of worries about sentiment and growth,” said Greg McKenna, chief market strategist at CFD and FX provider AxiTrader.
“Overall, though, we are simply ratcheting within a $0.7640/$0.7820 range.”
At home, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) issued its semi-annual report on the financial system and noted risks in the housing market had eased somewhat, though household debt remained too high for comfort. New Zealand dollar was flat at $0.7370, a touch below an eight-week high of $0.7389 hit overnight.
The currency was poised to rise 1.7 percent on the week, its largest gain in two months, as it weathered choppy global risk sentiment well.
“The NZD has outperformed other commodity currencies,” said Jason Wong, strategist at BNZ Bank. “Stronger risk appetite sees the NZD continuing to grind higher…the key resistance level is $0.7440, a level it has failed to break on three occasions dating back to September.”
New Zealand government bonds 0#NZTSY= eased, sending yields 4 basis points higher at the long end of the curve.
Australian government bond futures also slipped, with the three-year bond contract YTTc1 off 4 ticks at 97.790. The 10-year contract YTCc1 fell 5 ticks to 97.2750. (Editing by Shri Navaratnam)
Fusion Media would like to remind you that the data contained in this website is not necessarily real-time nor accurate. All CFDs (stocks, indexes, futures) and Forex prices are not provided by exchanges but rather by market makers, and so prices may not be accurate and may differ from the actual market price, meaning prices are indicative and not appropriate for trading purposes. Therefore Fusion Media doesn`t bear any responsibility for any trading losses you might incur as a result of using this data.
Fusion Media or anyone involved with Fusion Media will not accept any liability for loss or damage as a result of reliance on the information including data, quotes, charts and buy/sell signals contained within this website. Please be fully informed regarding the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, it is one of the riskiest investment forms possible.
Leave a Reply
Want to join the discussion?Feel free to contribute!