- Quarterly retail sales grew beyond market consensus while core reading remained soft.
- The US-China trade negotiations and FOMC minutes will be in the spotlight for now.
NZD/USD rose to 0.6510 after the first quarter (Q1) 2019 retail sales crossed forecast on early Wednesday.
The headline retail sales grew 0.7% versus 0.0% forecast and 1.7% prior while retail sale ex-autos, also known as core retail sales, lagged behind +0.9% market consensus and 2.0% prior to +0.7%.
Latest news reports from China pleased Antipodeans initially as the dragon nation’s ambassador to the US showed readiness to talk upon the trade deal and buying more goods and services from the US.
Having witnessed the market reaction to the quarterly retail sales data, traders may now shift their focus back to trade developments between the US and China whereas minutes of the US Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting can entertain traders afterward.
Even if the US central bank holds its neutral bias, latest data from the world’s largest economy has been positive amid global rush towards rate cuts and monetary policy easing, which in turn makes today’s minute statement even more interesting to observe.
Technical Analysis
Sustained downturn under 0.6500 highlights the importance of October 2018 bottom near 0.6425 and January 2016 low near 0.6350.
Alternatively, eight-week-old descending trend-line at 0.6540 and 0.6580 can limit the quote’s near-term upside.
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