XE Morning Update - May 21, 2019

The NZDUSD opens at 0.6535 (mid-rate) this morning.

An escalation in trade tensions between the US and China has tempered risk appetite and restricted currency market moves.

Global equity markets are in the red following Google's decision to suspend some of its businesses with Huawei after Trump barred American companies from selling to Chinese telecom giant without a US government license. According to reports Google has suspended its transfer of hardware, software and technical services indefinitely. European equity markets are currently the worst affected by the news falling circa 1.5%.

Yesterday afternoon Japan’s Q1 GDP surprised to the upside with the Cabinet Office reporting gross domestic product rose a seasonally adjusted 0.5%, confounding economists who had predicted a 0.1% fall.

The Japanese economy unexpectedly grew at an annualized 2.1% in the January-March quarter although the result is somewhat misleading as the largest driver of the expansion was imports falling at a faster rate than exports, and falling imports point to an underlying weakness in demand.

This morning Fed Chair Jerome Powell is due to deliver a speech titled "Assessing Risks to our Financial System" at the Financial Markets Conference, in Florida, while this afternoon the RBA monetary policy minutes from their meeting on the 7th May should dictate short-term direction for the NZDAUD cross rate.

Global equity have softened overnight, - Dow -0.33%, S&P 500 -0.65%, FTSE -0.51%, DAX -1.61%, CAC -1.46%, Nikkei +0.24%, Shanghai -0.41%.

Gold prices are unchanged trading at $1,277 an ounce. WTI Crude Oil prices have inched higher up 0.2% trading at $63.03 a barrel.The NZDUSD opens at 0.6535 (mid-rate) this morning.

An escalation in trade tensions between the US and China has tempered risk appetite and restricted currency market moves.

Global equity markets are in the red following Google's decision to suspend some of its businesses with Huawei after Trump barred American companies from selling to Chinese telecom giant without a US government license. According to reports Google has suspended its transfer of hardware, software and technical services indefinitely. European equity markets are currently the worst affected by the news falling circa 1.5%.

Yesterday afternoon Japan’s Q1 GDP surprised to the upside with the Cabinet Office reporting gross domestic product rose a seasonally adjusted 0.5%, confounding economists who had predicted a 0.1% fall.

The Japanese economy unexpectedly grew at an annualized 2.1% in the January-March quarter although the result is somewhat misleading as the largest driver of the expansion was imports falling at a faster rate than exports, and falling imports point to an underlying weakness in demand.

This morning Fed Chair Jerome Powell is due to deliver a speech titled "Assessing Risks to our Financial System" at the Financial Markets Conference, in Florida, while this afternoon the RBA monetary policy minutes from their meeting on the 7th May should dictate short-term direction for the NZDAUD cross rate.

Global equity have softened overnight, - Dow -0.33%, S&P 500 -0.65%, FTSE -0.51%, DAX -1.61%, CAC -1.46%, Nikkei +0.24%, Shanghai -0.41%.

Gold prices are unchanged trading at $1,277 an ounce. WTI Crude Oil prices have inched higher up 0.2% trading at $63.03 a barrel.

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