Business As Usual For Xe as Australia and NZ Tighten Lockdown Measures

The AUDUSD opens at 0.5798 and the NZDUSD opens at 0.5702 this morning.

Compared to what we are used to, a fairly quiet day in currencies, as everyone is too busy panic shopping to move the market. New Zealand is moving to Level 4 alert status, which will see all non-essential services closed and a mandate for people to stay at home for the next four weeks. A lot of negativity is priced into rates already, so a step like this, which is perceived as New Zealand getting on the front foot, has actually been taken positively.

News out of the States isn’t good, with their number of cases growing almost 100% overnight to 30,000. As their testing ramps up, expect these figures to get a lot worse before they get better. Again, a lot of this has been priced in, but we're unsure if the full extent has. The Senate is trying to get a fiscal stimulus package through which should help buoy risk sentiment, but for now the US Senate is doing what the US Senate does.

Quantitative easing is the order of the day around the world, with governments printing first, and asking questions later. The dust is yet to settle, and negative implications are yet to really be thought out, but for now, the more the merrier, and QE is not really hurting the currencies as much as you may expect during normal times.

We'd like to take the opportunity to reassure that it is , with the lockdown not really affecting us. Our team are predominantly working from home already, and the banking system is considered essential, so payments will still being actioned as normal.

Global equity markets were mixed, Dow -3.12%, S&P 500  -2.93%, FTSE -3.79%, DAX -2.1%, CAC -3.3%, Nikkei 2.0%, Shanghai -3.1%.

Gold prices are up 3.7% at USD$1,553 an ounce. WTI Crude Oil prices are flat at $23.47.

Get in touch with us for more information or pricing.

Australia Morning Update | New Zealand Morning Update