APAC Morning Update - 17/03/21

The AUDUSD opens at 0.7742 and the NZDUSD opens at 0.7186 this morning.

The markets overnight generally lacked direction as the market awaits the US interest rate decision tomorrow our time.

The expectation is that the U.S economy will grow in 2021 at its fastest rate in decades, with unemployment falling and inflation rising, but they are unlikely to change their monetary policy at this stage.

The stimulus funds are now being released into the economy, but there will be a nervous wait to see if they juice up the recovery, or are used to just pay down debt……

Economic Data:

Even though everyone is expecting a US rebound, there was some disappointing retail sales data out with February sales down across the board.

News ahead:

As I mentioned earlier, we have the US monetary policy out tomorrow, as well as NZ GDP and Australian unemployment data, so tomorrow could be a moving day for the currency.

Global equity markets are mixed: Dow -0.2%, S&P 500 +0.1%, FTSE +0.8%, DAX +0.7%, CAC +0.3%, Nikkei +0.5%, Shanghai +0.8%.

Gold prices are up 0.05%, currently trading at $1,730 an ounce. WTI Crude Oil prices are off 1.0% trading at $64.73 a barrel.

NZDUSD 0.7190 -0.1%
NZDEUR 0.6039 0.1%
NZDGBP 0.5172 -0.1%
NZDJPY 78.53 0.3%
NZDAUD 0.9282 0.0%
NZDCAD 0.8945 -0.3%
GBPNZD 1.9335 0.1%

AUDUSD 0.7747 0.0%
AUDEUR 0.6506 0.1%
AUDGBP 0.5573 -0.1%
AUDJPY 84.41 -0.2%
AUDNZD 1.0772 0.0%
GBPAUD 1.7944 0.1%