New Zealand Dollar Rallies on Hawkish RBNZ Report, Pound Shored up as UK Unemployment Rate Falls to Seven-Year Low

Published: 11 Nov at 1 PM Tags: Euro, Dollar, Pound Sterling, America, UK, Eurozone, Australian Dollar, New Zealand Dollar, Canadian Dollar, Australia, New Zealand, USA, Canada, Greece, Portugal,

Pound Sterling

The day’s raft of UK employment data proved more mixed than traders had hoped, as Jobless Claims Change showed a greater rise in claims for unemployment benefit and Average Weekly Earnings fell short of expectations.

However, although the Pound initially turned bearish, this was counteracted by the revelation that the domestic Unemployment Rate had fallen to a fresh seven-year low of 5.3%.

Coupled with a more hawkish remark from Bank of England (BoE) Governor Mark Carney, indicating that the policymaker believed wider global pressures to be less of a concern with regards to the UK’s economic growth, this soon saw Sterling trending higher across the board.

Euro

Sentiment towards the Euro (EUR) has remained rather muted on Wednesday, with no fresh domestic data releases to offset concerns over continuing problems within the Eurozone.

Eurogroup finance ministers have declined to approve the latest 2 billion Euro tranche of bailout funds for Greece, as the Greek government continues to disagree with creditors over the value of houses covered by foreclosure laws.

Also fuelling concern over the future of the Eurozone was the ousting of Portugal’s centre-right government by an anti-austerity left-wing coalition yesterday, pushing the common currency lower against rivals.

US Dollar

Yesterday’s US Wholesale Inventories printed at a higher level than forecast, climbing by 0.5% rather than 0.0%, to prompt a fresh surge in demand for the US Dollar (USD).

Traders remain decidedly confident that the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) will more likely than not vote to raise interest rates in December, keeping the ‘Greenback’ on relatively positive form today in spite of relatively limited domestic data.

Australian Dollar

Overnight the ‘Aussie’ was bolstered by the news that the Westpac Consumer Confidence Index for November unexpectedly rose from 97.8 to 101.7.

Suggesting that optimism amongst consumers is on the rise, following a stronger-than-expected domestic Home Loans figure, this helped to shore up confidence in the local economy despite weak commodity prices.

New Zealand Dollar

The Reserve Bank of New Zealand’s (RBNZ) latest financial stability report offered some reassurance to pundits early this morning, suggesting that the central bank is in no particularly great hurry to cut interest rates in the imminent future.

Although this evening’s domestic Manufacturing PMI is expected to show some slowing on the month the ‘Kiwi’ remains on a relatively strong footing against rivals.

Canadian Dollar

Oil prices have continued to retreat after US crude stockpiles were shown to have increased by another 6.3 million barrels today.

As this followed a dovish report from the International Energy Agency (IEA), which predicted that the price of crude would not likely return to the region of $80 per barrel for another five years, this has provoked fresh ‘Loonie’ weakness.

As of Wednesday, 11th November 2015, the Pound Sterling currency rates mentioned within this news item were as follows:

GBP EUR exchange rate was 1.4143, GBP USD exchange rate was 1.5222, GBP AUD exchange rate was 2.1536, GBP NZD exchange rate was 2.3218, and GBP CAD exchange rate was 2.0176.

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