NZD/USD climbs above 0.6400 ahead of GDT auction

• PPI in New Zealand came in higher than expected in Q3.
• US Dollar Index stays below 98 after posting modest losses on Monday.
• GDT Price Index and US-China trade headlines will be watched later. ,

The NZD/USD pair slumped to 0.6380 area during the Asian trading hours but staged a technical rebound to turn positive above the 0.6400 handle. As of writing, the pair was up 0.2% on a daily basis at 0.6410.

Resurfacing fears over the United States (US) and China failing to reach a trade deal after CNBC reported that Beijing was pessimistic about finalizing an agreement and could opt-out to wait for the 2020 presidential election weighed on the antipodeans.  On a similar note, Chinese news outlet Global Times said that sides had still a long way to go to end the trade dispute.  

USD starts the week on the backfoot

On the other hand, the greenback struggled to find demand on Monday amid falling US Treasury bond yields and the US Dollar Index closed in the negative territory. In the absence of significant macroeconomic drivers on Tuesday, the index is recovering modestly, keeping the pair’s upside limited for the time being. At the moment, the index is up 0.05% on the day at 97.88.

In the second half of the day, the bi-weekly Global Dairy Trade (GDT) auction will be looked upon for fresh impetus. Markets expect the GDT Price Index to come in at 1.6% following the previous reading of 3.7%. Fresh headlines surrounding the US-China trade conflict are likely to impact the pair’s action as well.

Technical levels to watch for