Ella 
NZD/USD continued to fall on Wednesday, testing the 2023 low and setting a new low for the year at 0.5846.
Overall market sentiment turned decidedly risk averse on Wednesday, and the NZD/USD remained under pressure on Thursday.
The conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza continues to pose a threat to the geopolitical stability of the Middle East, with market tensions rising following a hospital bombing that killed more than 500 civilians. Israel and Hamas traded blame, with Hamas claiming that a targeted Israeli airstrike destroyed the building, while Israel accused Hamas of accidentally firing the missile.
The U.S. Congress remained deadlocked, unable to elect a new speaker of the House after Congressional Republicans ousted their own speaker. The U.S. Congress held several votes over two days to find a new speaker, but all ended in failure, leaving the government process at a standstill and unnerving investors. The U.S. will face another funding impasse in four weeks.
The number of initial jobless claims in the United States for the week ending October 13th will be released on Thursday. Markets are expecting a slight increase in U.S. initial jobless claims from 209,000 to 212,000.
Later in the day, Fed Chairman Powell will speak at a luncheon hosted by the Economic Club of New York, and New Zealand trade balance data will be released later on Thursday, with New Zealand in early trading on Friday.
New Zealand Dollar investors will be looking for an improvement in the annualized trade balance for September, which was last seen in August when the trade balance came in at $15.54 billion.
