HiFX Morning Update July 20, 2018

The Kiwi opens down at 0.6744.

We have had a slew of consistently strong US data recently, with last night being no exception. Manufacturing data beat expectations, but the highlight was the Unemployment Claims figure. Although only being a weekly data point, this came in at 207K, which was less than expected at 220K. Not only that, but this figure represents the lowest weekly claim count since 1969.

These releases saw the USD strengthen over 1% across the board, gains that were paired back only when Trump came out on CNBC complaining about interest rate increases.

UK Retail Sales disappointed, coming in down 0.5%. This is however a fairly volatile data set, so did not have too much effect on the rate.

Locally there is very little data of note, with only the Canadian Dollar in the spotlight overnight.

Global equity markets are generally lower, Dow -0.45%, S&P 500 -0.36%, FTSE +0.10%, DAX -0.62%, CAC -0.56%, Nikkei -0.13%, Shanghai -0.53%.

Gold prices are down slightly at $1,223 an ounce, while WTI Crude Oil prices have edged higher, up 0.4% overnight trading at $67.98 a barrel.

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