NZD/USD recovers from day’s low as China’s industrial production overshadows retail sales

• NZD/USD trades near 0.6850 on early Thursday.
• The quote reversed from an intra-day low around 0.6840 after weaker than expected industrial production from China dominated over positive retail sales.
• US-China trade talk could offer fresh directives.

The NZD/USD pair recovered 10 pips to 0.6850 from 0.6840 after the National Bureau of Statistics of China released industrial production and retail sales figures. The industrial production weakened to 5.3% YoY over 5.5% forecast and 5.7% prior whereas retail sales matched previous growth of 8.2% versus 8.1% market consensus.
Traders gave more importance to the industrial production weakness over the retail sales outcome considering the latest downbeat data from China.

NZD/USD is still on a positive side if looking at a weekly basis. The reason being USD weakness. The US Dollar (USD) has been on a back-foot as recent data dossier like retail sales, inflation and core durable goods orders couldn’t please buyers.

Earlier during the day, the New Zealand Dollar gained traction as reports from BNZ predicted no rate cuts from the Reserve bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) like they do expect it from the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA). Analysts at BNZ said, “We see no reason to believe any cut in interest rates by the RBA would necessitate the RBNZ following suit. Current market pricing sees at least one rate cut as being definite for Australia while New Zealand prices a 70% chance of a reduction in rates”

While the latest data release from China is over, traders may now concentrate on the US-China trade talk. Recently, top-notch US lawmakers have come forward and criticized China in one way or the other. This indicates a lack of healthy progress on trade between the world’s two largest economies.

NZD/USD Technical Analysis

Successful break of 0.6875 is required for the NZD/USD pair to aim for 0.6905/10 and 0.6945, comprising February high.

Meanwhile, 0.6830 and 50-day simple moving average (SMA) figure of 0.6810 seem nearby supports to watch ahead of concentrating on 0.6770 rest-point.