Aside from the release of relatively weak, although entirely predictable Chinese GDP data which appeared to have little to no impact upon markets, today is currently dominated by strength in the antipodean currencies, particularly the New Zealand Dollar. In fact, all the commodity currencies – the New Zealand, Australian, and Canadian Dollars – are showing relative strength.
The Chinese GDP data showed an annualized growth of 6.2%, which was entirely expected by analysts, but is still the lowest number released at any time within the past twenty-seven years.
The strong commodity currencies are led by the New Zealand Dollar. The NZD/USD currency pair reached a near three-month high price of 0.6735 during the first half of today’s London session, and the NZD/JPY currency cross made a 9-day high of 72.65 during the Tokyo session. The AUD/USD currency pair made a 6-day high of 0.7038 earlier in today’s London session. The USD/CAD currency pair is a little off its recent multi-month low of 1.3018 which it made last Friday.
The remainder of the Forex market has been very quiet since markets opened this week, although the U.S. stock market still looks very firm in off-hours trading so far.
Trump Tweet Trolls Democrats
President Trump is in the U.S. news headlines again after suggesting that four radical Democrat members of the House of Representatives who fiercely criticize his presidency and the American status quo generally “go and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.”, although only one member of the “squad” was born outside the United States. Critics of the President are suggesting his tweet was nakedly racist, while his defenders are pointing to the fact that the tweet is factually correct regarding at least Ilhan Omar, who has herself been accused of racist pronouncements. It appears President Trump is trying to exploit the division which has recently emerged between the radical and occasionally identitarian rhetoric of the squad, and the Democratic congressional establishment led by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.