NZD/USD consolidates daily gains near 0.6830 ahead of Chinese data

• Business NZ PMI edges down to 53.2 in January.
• US Dollar Index looks to post modest daily losses.
• Coming up: CPI and PPI figures from China.

After advancing to a fresh weekly high of 0.6856 in the early NA session, the NZD/USD pair started to consolidate its daily gains and edged slightly lower in the last hour. As of writing, the pair was trading at 0.6831, adding 0.53% on a daily basis.

Earlier today, the broad-based selling pressure surrounding the USD fueled the pair’s upsurge. Disappointing retail sales data from the U.S. and a sharp drop witnessed in the Treasury bond yields weighed on the greenback and dragged the US Dollar Index back toward the 97 area. At the moment, the index is down 0.15% on the day at 97.05.

Meanwhile, Business NZ just recently reported that the manufacturing sector in New Zealand lost momentum in January with the headline PMI easing to 53.1 from 55.1 in December. “Looking at the main sub-index values, new orders (52.2) decreased its level of expansion for a third consecutive month, with the latest result the lowest since December 2017,”  BusinessNZ’s executive director for manufacturing Catherine Beard said in the publication. “In addition, the proportion of positive comments for January (47.7%) was down considerably from December (60.6%) and November (60.1%).”

In the Asian session, Chinese inflation report will be looked upon for fresh impetus. Markets expected the annual CPI to stay unchanged at 1.9% in January. A softer-than-expected inflation growth could weigh on the antipodean currencies and make it difficult for the NZD/USD pair to carry its winning streak into the third day.

Technical levels to consider