NZD/USD powering higher as business confidence, milk prices surge

• NZD/USD hits highs not seen since early January
• Latest leg higher fueled by big improvement in New Zealand business confidence
• Kiwi likely to outperform as long as traders continue to see a soft US economic landing

Overview

About the only thing rising as fast as dairy prices is New Zealand business confidence right now, and both are beneficial for NZD/USD which has surged to seven-month highs. Who said Kiwis can’t fly?

Kiwi flying on dairy strength, soaring business confidence

As covered in a separate note last week, NZD/USD has been a major benefactor of recent US dollar weakness, not only enjoying tailwinds from narrowing interest rate differentials but also soaring dairy prices. You can now add bullish New Zealand business confidence to the growing list of Kiwi tailwinds.

The confidence measure in the ANZ Bank New Zealand Business Outlook survey surged to a decade-high in August, surging 23 points to +51. Expectations for own activity also bounced, hitting fresh seven-year highs.

Source: ANZ

The bounce in optimism followed the Reserve Bank of New Zealand’s (RBNZ) first interest rate cut of the cycle earlier in the month, with the bank signalling a further 100 basis points of easing by the middle of next year. 

“Things are definitely looking up, albeit from a pretty dark place for many firms,” ANZ’s economics team wrote. “It wasn’t the Reserve Bank’s cut to the Official Cash Rate (OCR) that kicked off the lift – we saw an increase across much of the survey already in July, and the further large jump in August was already evident when the survey first opened at the very beginning of the month.

The table below from ANZ details just how impressive the improvement in the surveys internal components was during the month.

Source: ANZ

NZD/USD remains a buy-on-dips play

Having chopped back and forth through former resistance at .6218 earlier this week, the data has seen the Kiwi rocket higher in Asian trade on Thursday, hitting levels not seen since early January, breaking through another layer of resistance at .6277 in the process. The question now is whether it can hold there?

RSI (14) and MACD continue to provide bullish signals on the daily timeframe, although the former is now bordering on overbought territory. Even so, the inclination remains to buy dips rather than sell rallies in the near-term.

With nothing else on the New Zealand calendar this week, the biggest threat to the bullish trend arguably comes from incoming US labour market data which has been highly influential on Fed interest rate pricing over recent months, placing emphasis on initial jobless claims that will be released later in the session.

For a cyclical currency like the Kiwi, mild weakness screens as bullish. So too mild strength as both would allow the Fed to begin cutting rates without sparking fears of an impending recession. But if the data were to weaken dramatically, that would be problematic given the Kiwi comes across as a high beta play on the global economy.

If the US were to fall into recession, narrowing interest rate differentials would be more than overridden by fears of weaker demand, hammering risker cyclical plays as a consequence. However, such an outcome screens as unlikely on this occasion, potentially opening the door for the Kiwi to keep rising.

My preference would be to see how the data prints before entering positions. If the price pushes above .6277, you could buy with a stop below the level for protection. .63695 is one potential target. Alternatively, if it can’t hold .6277, you could sell with a stop above the level for protection targeting a pullback to either .6218 or .6150.

-- Written by David Scutt

Follow David on Twitter @scutty