- US is expected to announce a trade deal with China on Friday.
- China is yet to officially confirm the agreement.
- US Dollar Index consolidates losses below 97 ahead of Retail Sales data.
The NZD/USD pair capitalized on the broad-based USD weakness and climbed to its highest level since August at 0.6636 before going into a consolidation phase on Friday. As of writing, the pair was trading at 0.6617, adding 0.33% on a daily basis.
USD struggles to find demand
The sharp upsurge witnessed in the GBP/USD pair following Boris Johnson’s big victory in the UK election caused the greenback to come under strong selling pressure. The US Dollar Index slumped to its lowest level since early July at 97.52 toward the end of the day on Thursday and is now staging a technical rebound ahead of the Retail Sales data from the US. At the moment, the index is up 0.12% on the day at 96.85. Other data releases from the US will include Import and Export Price Index and Business Inventories.
On the other hand, reports suggesting that the US and China have landed a phase-one trade deal to avoid Sunday’s tariff hike provided an additional boost to the risk-sensitive antipodeans. Although China hasn’t yet officially confirmed the deal yet, investors are expecting sides to make an announcement ahead of the weekend.
Meanwhile, the data from New Zealand showed that the Business NZ PMI fell to 51.4 in November from 52.6 but came in better than the market expectation of 49.8.
Technical levels to watch for
Share
