NZ dollar may rise on commodities, weaker yen

Friday, 20 February 2009, 10:28 am
Article: Businesswire

NZ dollar may rise on stronger commodities, weaker yen

By Paul McBeth

Feb. 20 – The New Zealand dollar may push higher as commodity prices bounce back from multi-year lows, and the yen weakens on concern Japan, the world’s second-biggest economy, will delay its stimulus plans.

The Reuters Jeffries CRB index, a broad measure of the price of raw materials, rose 1.3% as demand for oil and copper picked up. Figures this week showed Japan’s fourth-quarter gross domestic product fell 3.3%, while Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa resigned, sparking concern fiscal spending plans will be delayed.

“The yen has lost its lustre” with the bleak outlook for the Japanese economy, said Danica Hampton, currency strategist at Bank of New Zealand. “The risk to the kiwi is that it may nudge a little higher.”

The kiwi fell to 51.32 U.S. cents from 51.41 cents yesterday and rose to 48.39 yen from 48.07. It dropped to 79.42 Australian cents from 79.51 cents yesterday, and declined to 40.49 euro cents from 40.65 cents. The yen was weaker against the U.S. dollar, which is buying 94.37 yen, up from 93.32 yesterday.

Hampton said the New Zealand dollar may trade between 51 and 52 U.S. cents today, and if it manages to break the topside, may rise as high as 52.50 cents.
Limiting the kiwi advance, figures showed continuing jobless claims in the U.S. rose to just under five million in the weak ended Feb. 8. Weak fourth quarter sales for Hewlett-Packard Co., the world’s largest maker of personal computers, contributed to a turnaround in U.S. stocks, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 0.7%.

National Bank of New Zealand Regional trends survey indicator, which breaks down economic growth by region, fell 0.1% in the fourth quarter, its fourth consecutive decline in the series, according to a report yesterday. The fall was smaller than the previous quarter, and Hampton said “it would seem to limit the odds of New Zealand’s Q4 GDP being as shockingly bad as we’ve already reported for most other countries”. The BNZ forecasts a contraction of 0.6% for the fourth quarter GDP, which will be announced on Mar. 27.

(Businesswire)

Top Scoops Headlines

COMMENT > >

Franklin Lamb: The End Of Syria As We Know It? Why Obama Is Declaring War

The short answer is Iran and Hezbollah according to Congressional sources. “The Syrian army’s victory at al-Qusayr was more than the administration could accept given that town’s strategic position in the region. Its capture by the Assad forces has essentially added Syria to Iran’s list of victories... More>>

Paul Bruce: Why Light Rail Must Go Ahead In Wellington

In introducing a debate on Wellington’s future, the Dominion Post challenged us to think about big changes. The current transport model has failed to deliver, and all the recent studies show more of the same is going to make things worse. We need a different approach if we want a vibrant, economically successful city. More>>

Binoy Kampmark: Edward Snowden: Whistleblowing At The NSA

He has been so naughty, at least in the eyes of the security establishment. The British are up in arms about what information is being obtained on their citizens via U.S. channels. Foreign Secretary William Hague has tried dousing the fires, claiming that GCHQ’s alleged involvement in the global surveillance program PRISM did not involve any circumvention of the law. More>>

ALSO:

Undernews - NSA Spygate Special
Roots Action - Over 30,000 Sign Thank-You Note to Edward Snowden

Martha Rosenberg: A Little Arsenic Never Hurt Anyone, Says US Chicken Industry

A study in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives found detectable levels of arsenic in chicken from grocery stores in 10 American cities, including in organic chickens. If the drug were fed to all chickens, over 100 US deaths would result from arsenic-related lung and bladder cancers, report the authors. More>>

Franklin Lamb: The West To Pay A High Price For Targeting The Syrian Govt

A number of analysts and security experts who specialize in intelligence and security subjects in Lebanon and France have expressed this week shock at the way many Western authorities, including several in Europe and the United States, are avoiding engagement with the Syrian authorities and thus missing important avenues to help end the crisis in Syria. More>>

Andrea Brower: Coming Soon To Your Backyard, Monsanto And Gang!

When the handful of corporations set on owning, controlling and über-profiting from our common seed heritage — Monsanto, Syngenta, DuPont, Dow, BASF and Bayer — began experimenting with their proprietary chemicals and genetically engineered crops in Hawaii in the 1990s, barely a peep was made. Two decades later, we can’t even convince our Hawaii state government... More>>

Greenpeace: The Video Every Kiwi Should See

John Wathen is an award winning photojournalist who recently toured Aotearoa recounting his experience both on the ground and in the air documenting the catastrophic 2011 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. John flew out over the gulf in a light plane and captured the event as it was unfolding resulting in some amazing footage and images of the worst environmental disaster in American history. More>>

Mitchel Cohen: For Each & Every Warrior Whose Strength Is Not To Fight

The weakness of strategies based on Lowest Common Denominatorism was in full evidentiary blossom during the 1991 bombardment of Iraq, re-packaged as “the Gulf war.” “Support Our Troops, Not the War!” insisted the National Campaign for Peace in the Middle East, which grew out of the old National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam... More>>