NZD/USD Trade Idea

[Guest TomB]

, one of our market analysts, has provided the following trading idea. Feel free to take a look, and let us know what you think.

 

Trade idea: Sell NZD/USD at $0.6490, stops at $0.6588

 

The NZD has been the weakest G10 currency over past 24 hours relative to the USD, but then this has been the case over the past month as well, with the pair falling 4.9%.

 

From a momentum perspective being short NZD/USD makes a lot of sense.

 

Is there any reason to be fighting the strong trend lower at present? I certainly wouldn’t be and there are no clear reversal signs on the daily or weekly charts. When you look at various fundamentals inputs it also suggests shorts are absolutely warranted. Last night’s dairy auction in New Zealand saw an 11% decline in whole milk powder, although futures pricing had largely been predicting this. New Zealand’s terms of trade have been improving of late, but this auction will not reflect well for Q3 GDP on 17 December.

 

Prior to the Q3 GDP print, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) will announce potential changes to its cash rate and as it stands 15 of 18 economists surveyed by Bloomberg see a 25 basis point cut. This is not fully reflected in the swaps markets, so I would not be surprised to see the NZD drift lower into the RBNZ meeting. On the other side of the equation, the two key event risks for the USD will be the November non-farm payrolls on 5 December and the 17 December FOMC meeting.

 

It’s not hard to see why NZD/USD is trending lower as this is central bank divergence in its purest form.

 

Interestingly, there is an almost tick-for-tick correlation between NZD/USD and the NZ/US two-year bond spread, where US bond yields are moving up much more aggressively relative to that of New Zealand. These changes positively impact the USD valuation, with global money managers seeing higher potential returns in the US bond market. For NZD/USD to continue trading lower we will need to see US bond yield tick higher and given the market is priced at a 68% probability of a move from the Fed in December there is a real possibility we could see further upside in US yields and therefore USD strength.

 

Technically, I would specifically look at the two-hour chart where we can see a compelling downside break of the November triple bottom at $0.6500. Yesterday we saw a re-test of the former support and a rejection and should be seen a bearish development. On the daily chart momentum and trend indicators are headed lower, suggesting a move into the August-September lows could feasibly come into play.

 

In terms of risk management I feel placing stops above the 11 November high of $0.6588 is prudent. I would take a much more neutral stance on NZD/USD on a closing break of the October downtrend at $0.6690. I am keen to target the $0.6300 to $0.6250 area.

 

(2 hour chart)

 

 

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[Guest JimC]

Nice one,

 

Though, maybe could have SAR'd this one two weeks ago @ 6594, now be moving your stop to B/E and have an extra 100 pips? :manwink:

 

Kiwi daily.