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• Soft U.S. inflation data drove Wall Street’s overnight rally, with the Nasdaq up 2.5%, S&P 500 up 1.9%, and Dow Jones up 1.8% in late North American trading. The U.S. 10-year Treasury yield fell 14 basis points to 4.65%, while oil prices rose 4.0% to $80.60 per barrel.
• U.S. December CPI rose 0.4% month-on-month and 2.9% year-on-year, meeting expectations. However, core indicators came in at 0.2% month-on-month and 3.2% year-on-year, both 0.1 percentage points below expectations. The January Empire State Manufacturing Index fell to -12.6, below the previous 2.1 and the expected 3.0.
• Following the data release, the dollar weakened broadly, and the yield curve declined across the board. AUD/USD rose from near 0.6200 to a high of 0.6247, NZD/USD climbed to 0.5651, EUR/USD broke above 1.0350, and GBP/USD surpassed 1.2300. USD/JPY fell from near 157.00 to a low of 156.25. The dollar later reversed its losses, with most major currency pairs returning to near pre-data levels. EUR/USD was an exception, falling further to a new low of 1.0257 before recovering somewhat.
• Asian stock markets closed mixed, with the Nikkei down 0.1%, Shenzhen index down 0.6%, and Hang Seng up 0.3%. Australia’s ASX 200 fell 0.2%, dragged down by the information technology and communication services sectors.
• European stock markets generally opened higher and continued to rise, with the CAC up 0.7%, FTSE up 1.2%, and DAX up 1.5% for the day.
Here are the latest mid-market rates:
Currency Pair | Mid-market Rate |
---|---|
NZD/USD | 0.5617 |
NZD/AUD | 0.9024 |
NZD/JPY | 87.85 |
NZD/CNY | 4.1254 |
NZD/EUR | 0.5458 |
NZD/GBP | 0.4590 |
NZD/HKD | 4.3719 |
NZD/SGD | 0.7670 |
Char of the day