Ella 
In early trading in Asia on Wednesday, the New Zealand dollar/US dollar maintained a good trend for the fourth consecutive day. A weaker U.S. dollar and lower U.S. bond yields have provided some support for NZD/USD. NZD/USD is currently trading around 0.6054, with an intraday increase of 0.05%.
On Tuesday, New Zealand’s trade balance in October was at an annual rate of NZ$14.81 billion, compared with the previous value of NZ$15.41 billion. At the same time, New Zealand’s trade exports increased to NZ$5.40 billion in October from NZ$4.77 billion last month, while imports fell to NZ$7.11 billion from NZ$7.20 billion last month.
In addition, the New Zealand dollar’s rise has been supported by an optimistic outlook for its main trading neighbor China. Officials from the People’s Bank of China reiterated that the central bank is committed to providing more policy support to China’s troubled real estate industry.
On the dollar front, Fed members remain concerned that inflation will persist or rise further. Participants continued to judge that monetary policy needs to remain restrictive enough to bring inflation down to the Fed’s 2% target. The market expects the Fed to end its interest rate hike cycle, with the Fed fund futures market set to cut interest rates starting in May 2024. This, in turn, pushed the US dollar lower and became a tailwind for NZD/USD.
Market participants will keep a close eye on Wednesday’s weekly U.S. jobless claims data, durable goods orders and the University of Michigan consumer sentiment survey. Later in the week, U.S. markets will be closed on Thursday for the Thanksgiving holiday. New Zealand’s third-quarter retail sales (Q3) and the US’s S&P Global Purchasing Managers’ Index will be released on Friday.
