- NZD/USD is staging a correction following Thursday’s upsurge.
- US Dollar Index recovers toward 90.00 during European session.
- Business confidence in New Zealand improved sharply in December.
The NZD/USD pair climbed to its highest level since May 2018 at 0.7172 on Thursday but reversed its direction on the last day of the week. As of writing, the pair was down 0.42% on a daily basis at 0.7118.
DXY edges higher on Friday
The USD’s market valuation remains the primary driver of NZD/USD’s movements. The greenback struggled to find demand throughout the week and touched its lowest level in nearly 32 months at 89.73 on Thursday. Heightened hopes for a US stimulus bill allowed both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite to surge to fresh record highs and made it difficult for USD to attract investors.
However, renewed concerns over a no-deal Brexit triggered a sharp decline in the GBP/USD pair and helped the DXY stage a rebound on Friday. At the moment, the index is clinging to modest daily gains near 90.
Earlier in the day, the data from New Zealand showed that the ANZ Business Confidence in December improved sharply to 9.4 from -6.9 in November and the ANZ Activity Outlook surged to 21.7% from 9.1%. Nevertheless, the kiwi failed to capitalize on these upbeat figures.
There won’t be any significant macroeconomic data releases from the US in the second half of the day.