The Kiwi is going bananas
The New Zealand dollar is stronger by 1.4% at .7106 versus the US dollar after the Reserve Bank of New Zealand left rates unchanged at 2.25%.
"The Kiwi's push to new highs since last June was also a function of Governor Wheeler's guidance," Marc Chandler, the global head of currency strategy at Brown Brothers Harriman, wrote in a note to clients.
"He suggested that the output gap has closed and that prices were stabilizing, but could accelerate higher. He explicitly indicated that there was no need for additional stimulus at this juncture. Wheeler also noted the resurgence in house prices."
As for the rest of the world, here's the scoreboard as of 7:47 a.m. ET:
- The Japanese yen is stronger by 0.5% at 106.45 per dollar despite the sharp drop in April machinery orders. This "bodes ill for capital spending in the second quarter, though we wouldn't read too much into the data for a single month," wrote Capital Economics' Marcel Thieliant in a note to clients.
- The Australian dollar is weaker by 0.8% at .7433 against the dollar after briefly touching a high of .7500 in early Asian trade .
- The South Korean won ended little changed at 1155.89 after the country's central bank unexpectedly cut rates by 25 basis points to a record low of 1.25%. The rate cut was the first since June 2015, and comes as "exports have continued their trend of decline."
- The dollar index is up by 0.3% at 93.90 ahead of initial jobless claims and the Federal Reserve's quarterly flow of funds report.