All eyes and ears are on the RBNZ decision!
But will the actual event spur profit-taking instead? Here’s a Kiwi setup I’m watching.
Before moving on, ICYMI, today’s Asia-London session watchlist checked out a simple range setup on AUD/JPY ahead of the RBA statement. Be sure to check out if it’s still a valid play!
And now for the headlines that rocked the markets in the last trading sessions:
Fresh Market Headlines & Economic Data:
Facebook shares tumble on outage after “faulty configuration change”
New Zealand ANZ commodity prices rebounded by 1.5% after 1.6% slump
Australia’s ANZ job advertisements sank 2.8% after previous 2.7% drop
Australian retail sales fell another 1.7% as expected
OPEC decided to stick to current production deal
RBA kept monetary policy unchanged as expected
Asian shares tumble on crude oil rally and inflation concerns
Evergrande fallout sparks fears of Chinese property sector default
French industrial production up by 1.0% vs. projected 0.4% uptick
Spanish and Italian services PMIs fall short of estimates
German and French final services PMIs upgraded from 56.0 to 56.2
Upcoming Potential Catalysts on the Economic Calendar:
U.S. ISM services PMI at 2:00 pm GMT
New Zealand GDT auction coming up
ECB head Lagarde’s speech at 3:00 pm GMT
FOMC member Quarles’ speech at 3:15 pm GMT
RBNZ interest rate statement at 1:00 am GMT
If you’re not familiar with the forex market’s main trading sessions, check out our Forex Market Hours tool.
What to Watch: NZD/JPY
Risk-off flows came in play during the earlier trading sessions, as the surge in crude oil prices fueled inflation fears.
Will this be enough to keep NZD/JPY in consolidation, though?
The pair is trading inside a descending triangle pattern and testing the resistance. Price could be setting its sights on the bottom of the triangle that lines up with the 76.50 minor psychological mark.
After all, the 100 SMA is below the 200 SMA to confirm that resistance is likely to hold, and Stochastic is heading lower to show that sellers are in control.
The upcoming RBNZ decision might shake things up, as the central bank is widely expected to hike interest rates.
Take note that this comes after a delay in tightening when New Zealand reimposed lockdown measures a few months back. Since the hike was priced in for a while, we might see some profit-taking action during the actual event.
Besides, traders are more keen to find out if the central bank is set to follow through with another interest rate hike in their next statement. Dashing these hopes might mean some downside for NZD/JPY, so keep your eyes and ears peeled!
