HiFX morning Update, November 5, 2018

The NZDUSD opens at 0.6637 (mid-rate) this morning.

A stellar non-farm payroll report helped push the US dollar and US Treasury yields higher.

Late on Friday the US Labour Department report showed non-farm payroll employment increased by a staggering 250K jobs in the month of October, well ahead of the forecast 190k increase. US Treasury yields spiked higher on the announcement with the 10-year-note spiking 8bps to 3.21%, while US equity markets which were pushing higher turned negative following the data release.

A Bloomberg report indicating that the US were about to draft potential terms of a trade deal with China helped support emerging market currencies including the NZD, although Trump's chief economic advisor Larry Kudlow, later played down the report during an interview with CNBC saying there has been "no massive movement to deal with China." And that "We're not on the cusp of a deal."

Monetary policy statements from the RBNZ, RBA and Federal Reserve which are all expected to keep interest rates on hold, are like to be overshadowed by the US mid-term elections where the Democrats hope to retake at least one chamber of Congress, with the latest polls showing they are close to securing the 23 seats needed to flip the House.

Global equity markets closed out the week mixed, - Dow -0.43%, S&P 500 -0.63%, FTSE -0.26%, DAX +0.444%, CAC +0.32%, Nikkei +2.56%, Shanghai +2.70%.

Gold prices edged lower on Friday, down 0.3% closing out the week at $1,232 an ounce. WTI Crude Oil prices again lower on Friday, down 1.2% closing out the week at $62.88 a fourth consecutive weekly fall.

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