WELLINGTON/SYDNEY: The Australian and New Zealand dollars retreated on Thursday as Europe's liquidity action failed to gain market confidence, with a contraction in Italy adding to uncertainty.
* Risk trades, led by the euro, rose initially on the new three-year lending from the ECB to regional banks, but sentiment turned sour on doubt whether it could address euro zone crisis.
* Aussie dollar back to around $1.0081, after rising as high as $1.0220 at one point on Wednesday before details of the ECB operation were digested.
* Aussie now has support at the 21-day moving average of $1.0030 while the 100-day moving average at $1.0209 should cap the topside.
* Aussie still reached a record high on the euro, which slid as far as A$1.2858 before steadying at A$1.2942 .
* NZ dollar also volatile, holding around $0.7685, having pulled back from a near two-week peak of $0.7774 in volatile offshore trade.
* Kiwi set to test Wednesday's low of $0.7645 while resistance seen at 55-day moving average of $0.7780.
* Euro had been up nearly 1 pct near $1.3200, before giving up gains to trade around $1.3045. Weak results from Oracle Corp. also adds to risk aversion, which is already pressured by an economic contraction in Italy.
* Wall Street lower, while the CRB commodity index up 0.7 pct, oil also higher while gold and copper off highs.
* Antipodeans pare gains against the yen, with Aussie at 78.67 yen from overnight peak of 79.40 and kiwi to 59.93 yen from 60.41.
* No major data due in Australia, while NZ awaits Q3 GDP, with a Reuters poll forecasting 0.6 pct rise q/q. Annual growth seen at 3.9 pct, from 3.7 pct in Q2. A strong outcome may see modest kiwi gains, while poor data could harden bets for rate cuts.
* NZ markets pricing implies a 24 pct chance of a 25 bps rate cut next month and 4 bps of cuts next year.
* Aussie debt futures slightly higher, with the three-year contract up 0.01 point at 96.960, and the 10-year contract 0.02 points higher at 96.185.
* NZ government bonds also follow, with yields up 1 bps across the curve. The 10-year yields up further to 3.930 pct from an all-time low of 3.76 pct hit last Thursday.
Comments
Comments are closed.