The Antipodean currencies, in other words the Kiwi and Aussie Dollars, were the market’s key major movers today, albeit moving in opposing directions as a result of a divergence in signals on their respective economic health. In economic data in New Zealand, the Kiwi Dollar received a boost after a surprisingly upbeat trade data revealed a surplus of $56 million while the Aussie Dollar came under early pressure after it was shown that business investment figures were unexpectedly poor in the last quarter of 2014, declining to -2.2%from 0.6%. Both currencies later got some support from a better than expected PMI reading from China.
As reported at 9:05 am (GMT) in London, the NZD/USD is up at 0.7600, a gain of 0.46% and nearer the high end of the trading band at 0.7548 and 0.7615 while the AUD/USD was trading at 0.7902, a gain of 0.2%, and within a tight trading band of 0.7836 and 0.7914.
After Yellen, Markets Turn to Data
In the U.S., Janet Yellen’s testimony before the U.S. Congress failed to provide dollar bulls with improvement in sentiment as she left little doubt that U.S. interest rates probably won’t be earmarked to rise until much later this year. One currency strategist said that the Federal Reserve Chairman is the key reason behind the Dollar’s pull back. Markets will be focusing on US inflation data due out later today, with analysts expecting inflation to rise only very marginally.