New Zealand dollar edges higher

The New Zealand dollar has posted small gains on Thursday, as NZD/USD has pushed above the 0.68 line in the North American session.

New Zealand is hugely dependent on its export industry, and the Covid pandemic has taken its toll on exports, as global demand has fallen. However, with the worst of Covid hopefully behind us, global demand has picked up, which bodes well for New Zealand’s economy. The ANZ Commodity Price Index climbed 3.9% in February, its strongest gain since March 2021.

The war in Ukraine has intensified, with fierce fighting reported near Ukraine’s major cities as the number of refugees fleeing from Ukraine has hit one million. Western countries have imposed severe sanctions on Moscow as relations between East and West have plummeted. Russian and Ukrainian officials will hold talks later today, which has raised risk sentiment and kept the New Zealand dollar in positive territory. NZD/USD has been on an impressive roll, posting four straight winning weeks and has gained close to 1 per cent this week. So far at least, the panic in the financial markets has not weighed on the New Zealand dollar, which is sensitive to risk.

Powell commits to rate hike in March

The Fed is again on centre stage, as Chair Jerome Powell testified on the Hill on Wednesday and will appear before lawmakers today as well. There had been some speculation that the war in Ukraine might force the Fed to delay a rate hike, but Powell removed any such doubts in his testimony, stating that the hike would go ahead as planned. Powell’s comments suggested that the Fed will stick with the traditional 25-bps move rather than a massive half-point hike. The confirmation of a rate hike by Powell boosted US Treasury yields, and currently the 10-year yield is at 1.85%.

.

NZD/USD Technical

• There is resistance at 0.6826 and 0.6908
• NZD/USD has support at 0.6647 and 0.6550

Content is for general information purposes only. It is not investment advice or a solution to buy or sell securities. Opinions are the authors; not necessarily that of OANDA Business Information & Services, Inc. or any of its affiliates, subsidiaries, officers or directors. If you would like to reproduce or redistribute any of the content found on MarketPulse, an award winning forex, commodities and global indices analysis and news site service produced by OANDA Business Information & Services, Inc., please access the RSS feed or contact us at info@marketpulse.com. Visit https://www.marketpulse.com/ to find out more about the beat of the global markets. © 2023 OANDA Business Information & Services Inc.