Slow China-US Trade Negotiations Influence the Currency Market - APAC Update

The AUDUSD opens at 0.7085 (mid-rate) and the NZDUSD opens at 0.6741 (mid-rate) this morning.

China-US trade negotiations update

Safe-haven currencies outperformed the majors last week with investors concerned about the lack of progress in the China-US trade negotiations and slowing global growth.

On Friday, President Donald Trump told reporters he will not meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping before a crucial March deadline when tariffs on Chinese goods are set to increase automatically. Trump's comments came after White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow told reporters that the US and China have a "pretty sizable distance to go" before reaching a trade deal.

Eyes are on the RBNZ's interest rate decision

Over the course of the last week, the Bank of England, the European Central Bank and the Reserve Bank of Australia all cut their growth forecasts for 2019. The Reserve Bank of New Zealand will likely follow suit at Wednesday afternoon’s meeting.

The CAD spiked higher on Friday after data from Statistics Canada showed that the Great White North's employment tally surged by 66.8k jobs in January following an increase of 9,300 jobs in December. The result was well ahead of economists’ forecasts of a 5k increase in jobs.

Upcoming data

The valuation direction for the NZD will be dictated by Wednesday’s RBNZ monetary policy statement, with opinions on inflation expectations and a press conference following shortly after. On the international front, the UK GDP report for Q4 is due to be released tonight. US monthly inflation and retail sales reports are due for release in the second half of the week.

Global equity markets closed out the week mixed, - Dow -0.25%, S&P 500 +0.06%, FTSE -0.26%, DAX -1.05%, CAC -0.48%, Nikkei -2.01%, Shanghai Closed. Gold prices were unchanged on Friday, closing out the week at $1,313 an ounce.

WTI Crude Oil prices pushed higher on Friday rising 1.7% closing at $53.09 a barrel.

Mid-market rates

AUDUSD0.7085-0.2%NZDUSD0.6741-0.2%AUDEUR0.62610.2%NZDEUR0.5952-0.2%AUDGBP0.54720.0%NZDGBP0.52090.0%AUDJPY77.75-0.2%NZDJPY73.92-0.4%AUDNZD1.05150.1%NZDAUD0.9511-0.1%GBPAUD1.82750.0%NZDCAD0.8941-0.5% GBPNZD1.91980.0%
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