Foreign exchange - Kiwi weaker after RBNZ holds, Fed alerts December

Kiwi weaker as RBNZ holds

Investing.com – The New Zealand dollar fell in early Asia on Thursday as the central bank held steady on rates as expected, but called for a weaker kiwi, while the dollar firmed on expectations for a Federal Reserve rate hike at the end of the year.

traded at 0.6688, down 0.19%, while changed hands at 0.7103, also down 0.19%. traded at 121.10, up 0.02%.

The Reserve Bank of New Zealand left the official cash rate unchanged at 2.75% as expected, but jawboned the currency lower by stating that lower interest rates would be required if the exchange rate remains high.

Ahead, Japan reports industrial output for September, with a fall of 0.5% expected month-on-month. In Australia comes HIA new home sales and the export and import price index.

The , which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was up 0.03% at 97.71.

Overnight, the U.S. Federal Reserve kept interest rates unchanged on Wednesday and in a direct reference to its next policy meeting put a December rate hike firmly in play.

Investors had expected the Fed to remain pat on rates, but the overt reference to December came as a surprise.

Data on Tuesday showing that a key measure of U.S. business investment plans fell for a second straight month in September curtailed expectations for higher interest rates.

Orders for nondefense capital goods excluding aircraft, a proxy for company spending on equipment, fell 0.3% in September after a 1.6% decline in August.

Another report showed that U.S. consumer confidence declined this month.

Earlier Wednesday, the Mortgage Bankers Association said their mortgage market index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, declined by 3.5% in the week ending October 23 to 417.4. That follows a gain of 11.8% to 432.7 in the preceding week.

Disclaimer: Fusion Media would like to remind you that the data contained in this website is not necessarily real-time nor accurate. All CFDs (stocks, indexes, futures) and Forex prices are not provided by exchanges but rather by market makers, and so prices may not be accurate and may differ from the actual market price, meaning prices are indicative and not appropriate for trading purposes. Therefore Fusion Media doesn`t bear any responsibility for any trading losses you might incur as a result of using this data .

Fusion Media or anyone involved with Fusion Media will not accept any liability for loss or damage as a result of reliance on the information including data, quotes, charts and buy/sell signals contained within this website. Please be fully informed regarding the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, it is one of the riskiest investment forms possible.

Foreign exchange - Kiwi weaker after RBNZ holds, Fed alerts December