Risk appetite battles market stability

10.53 NZST, Wednesday 14 November 2012

Risk appetite battles market stability

By Andrew May (Sales Trader, CMC Markets New Zealand)

It has been a choppy night's trading range for the Kiwi US cross between 0.8156 and 82c. Markets have bounced continuously with the DOW closing 58.9 points -0.46% lower to 12,756.18. The US session has been dragged down by financial and tech heavy magnets Intel, Hewlett Packard, JP Morgan & Microsoft. However, there was a short rally pushing the DOW to a session high 83 points upon news that US congress may have found solidarity with a bias towards the looming US fiscal cliff alongside easing concerns of the inevitable Greek bailout.

As a consequence of the market volatility we've witnessed over the last three months the NZDUSD continues to be thrown aggressively within a three month range of 8127 - 0.8302 due to investors tiptoeing between risk appetite and a potential fiscal meltdown. Get set for further fireworks as we move into 2013.

Locally the NZD may find a little pressure today with Retail sales figures due this morning and the manufacturing index due tomorrow. With pertinent data forecast, we should be aligned for a 0.4% increase to retail sales and possibly moving into just under expansion territory for the PMI.

The NZD/USD opens today supported by the post US market close at 0.8187, yet could retest 0.8165 or lower upon increased anxiety towards the northern hemisphere concerns, thus pushing dollar bulls back into favour and shunning riskier assets.

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