Dovish RBNZ Hikes Rates

Market Brief

The Yen extended its strength through the Asian session this morning and was higher against most of the majors on a combination of weaker macroeconomic data and selloffs in the equity sector. Starting with the release of the durable goods orders (-1.0% act v 1.0% exp/-0.8% prev) and continuing through to the release of the Fed's beige book, it was all about weakening sentiment during last night's US session. The beige book business survey showed that the US economic growth slowed in some areas over the past few months, weighed down by the commercial real estate segment. This weakness has filtered into the session with Asian equity markets all lower led by the Nikkei 225 which was -0.59% lower at the time of writing. The other majors have been holding their levels quite stubbornly against the US Dollar amidst all the bearish news, and as a result the positive correlation seen over the past few months between pairs (against the USD) and equity markets seems to have gone for a toss for the time being.

Earlier in the morning, the RBNZ increased their overnight interest rate by 25 basis pts to 3.00%. As the hike was widely expected, the prevailing comments are what seemed to have driven the markets. Governor Bollard said the pace & extent of future rate hikes would be at a more moderate rate as a result of deteriorating prospects for growth. In stark contrast to his comments from June, the RBNZ adopted a more dovish tone and the NZD was weaker across the board. The NZDUSD was -0.37% after hitting an intraday low of 0.7202.

Next up, markets will be watching the German employment figures & Euro-zone economic confidence followed by the weekly jobless claims reading from the US.