Ella 
During early Asian trading on Thursday, NZD/USD closed positive for the third consecutive day. China’s industrial production and retail sales strengthened on Wednesday, boosting the New Zealand dollar, which acts as a proxy for China. As of press time, NZD/USD was trading around 0.6029, with an intraday increase of 0.12%.
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand will hold a monetary policy meeting on November 29. The Reserve Bank of New Zealand is expected to keep the official cash rate at 5.5% and signal that further rate hikes are possible next year. New Zealand house prices fell slightly in October on Thursday, while sales activity has been rising steadily since 2022.
On the other hand, traders have given up on expectations for a rate hike by the Federal Reserve (FED) and put the chance of a rate cut by May 2024 at 50%. This in turn puts pressure on the US Dollar (USD) and acts as a tailwind for NZD/USD.
In terms of data, the U.S. Producer Price Index (PPI) fell by 0.5% on a monthly basis in October, compared with an increase of 0.4% in the previous month, which was lower than market expectations of a 0.1% increase. The producer price index fell to an annual rate of 1.3% in October from 2.2% in September. Finally, retail sales recorded -0.1% in October, below expectations of -0.3%.
Looking ahead, U.S. weekly jobless claims will be released on Thursday. On Friday, New Zealand will release its third quarter (Q3) Producer Price Index-Input. Traders will look to this data for NZD/USD trading opportunities.
