The Dollar weakened in early trading, with EUR/USD rising to a 3-month high of 1.142 and GBP/USD spiking to 1.128, before recouping the bulk of its losses. There were no particular catalysts for this back and forth, with currency markets showing little reaction to the release of weak US consumer confidence data at 15.00 (London time). Confidence in June fell to its lowest level in 21-month which may in turn have weighed on US retail sales growth.
The NZD/USD cross has been pretty stable around 0.665 ahead of tonight’s RBNZ policy meeting and press conference. The RBNZ has arguably been one of most dovish central banks, cutting its policy rate 25bp back on 8th May. It has since taken a somewhat more neutral view and analysts expect it to keep its policy rate unchanged at 1.50% this week but to signal scope for further rate cuts this year.
