Australian Dollar
Expected Range 0.7350 – 0.7450
The Australian Dollar has continued to strengthen against the USD pushing through the 0.74 cent range despite positive jobs data out of the US on Friday. The Australian dollar reached an intraday high of 0.7443 before closing Friday’s trade at 0.7436. Despite the US announced added 242,000 jobs during the last month the Australian dollar was able to continue its positive trend after the Australian dollar was supported by commodity prices which are starting to recover from the lows that they have recently experienced. The strengthening AUD will start to put pressure on the Reserve Bank of Australia and they may look to intervene in the market to devalue the currency. The market opens this morning down 27 points at 0.7409 following China’s decision to reduce GDP goals now targeting an annual growth rate at or above 6.5%.
New Zealand Dollar
Expected Range 0.6750 – 0.6850
The New Zealand Dollar had its fifth consecutive day appreciating against the USD on Friday. The NZD was able to move through 0.68 and has now recovered almost all of the ground lost in the first part of 2016. General USD weakness and rising commodity prices has enabled the NZD to rally. The rising NZD will be a topic of conversation at the Reserve Bank of New Zealand’s interest rate decision on Thursday. While the RBNZ Governor Wheeler did dampen expectations of a rate cut last month the rising NZD may see the Reserve Bank surprise. With no data out locally we will see the NZD take direction from overseas markets.
Great British Pound
Expected Range 1.9000 – 1.9400
The Great British Pound has continued its slide against the AUD as investors look to move out of an uncertain situation. The discussion around whether or not the UK should leave the Eurozone continues to intensify and the markets are reacting nervously. The unexpected strength of side lobbying to leave the Eurozone will see the referendum hanging over the UK economy for some time as the vote is not taking place until June. The GBP opens down this morning up against the AUD (1.9071) and NZD (2.0851) but up against the USD (1.4222).
Majors
Expected Range N/A
The USD experienced weakness against most currency pairs on Friday despite having some positive jobs data. While the unemployment rate stayed at 4.9% the US economy was able to add 242,000 jobs during the last month. However the news was outweighed by the trade balance data coming in below expectations at -45.7 Billion compared with last month’s number of -44.7 Billion. In Japan the Bank of Japan Governor Kuroda will speak with the market looking for any indication of what they will do at their next monetary policy meeting after recently moving the interest rates into negative territory.