NZ Dollar Rises Against Majors

02:36, 2nd October 2014

(RTTNews) - The NZ dollar strengthened against the other major currencies in the Asian session on Thursday after weakening in the previous session.

On Wednesday overnight, dairy prices fell to a five-year low at Fonterra Cooperative Group's Global Dairy Trade auction.

Results of a survey by ANZ showed that New Zealand's commodity prices declined at a slower rate in September. The ANZ commodity price index slid 1.3 percent month-over-month in September following the 3.3 percent drop in August. This marked the seventh consecutive month of fall in prices.

Prices of dairy products declined the most, as skim milk powder prices dropped by 14 percent to its lowest level since June 2012.

On Wednesday, the NZ dollar fell 0.79 percent against the euro, 0.34 percent against the greenback, 0.96 percent against the yen and 0.26 percent against the aussie.

In the Asian trading, the NZ dollar rose to a 1-week high of 1.5982 against the euro, from an early low of 1.6242. At yesterday's close, the kiwi was trading at 1.6205 against the euro. If the kiwi extends its uptrend, it is likely to find resistance around the 1.57 area.

Against the U.S. dollar, the kiwi advanced to a 6-day high of 0.7926 from an early low of 0.7765. The pair was quoted at 0.7781 at yesterday's close. The kiwi is likely to find resistance near the 0.80 region.

Moving away from an early 3-day low of 86.67 against the yen and a 2-day low of 1.1245 against the Australian dollar, the kiwi climbed to 3-day highs of 86.04 and 1.1117, respectively. The kiwi may test resistance near 86.87 against the yen and 1.10 against the aussie.

Looking ahead, Eurozone producer price index for August is due to be released in the European session.

In the New York session, U.S. weekly jobless claims for the week ended September 27 and factory orders for August are due to be released.

The European Central bank will announce its interest rate decision at 7:45 am ET. Economists expect the bank to retain interest rates unchanged at 0.05 percent. At 8:30 am ET, ECB President Draghi will give press conference following interest rate announcement.