The commodities market was looking at a relatively quiet day (that is in comparison to the incredible activity of the past few weeks). Crude marked a modest advance while industrial and precious metals fell back. On the whole, this left the Canadian dollar relatively unchanged through the US session close – though this close didn’t fully account for the day’s volatility, including a steep 150 point drop in USD/CAD over just a few hours.
Neither the Australian nor New Zealand dollars fared as well. The marked an intraday 11-month low just under 0.85 – though a long-term double bottom and 61.8 percent fib retracement helped put a technical floor in until fundamentals could rekindle bearish momentum. The kiwi held out at 0.69 against its US counterpart, with the help of a hawkish inflation expectations report from the RBNZ for the 3Q. The central bank’s indicator forecasted a 3.0 percent pace of price growth over the coming two years, the highest reading since the first quarter of 1991. And, while this figure won’t change the policy outlook from dovish to hawkish, it may stall further rate cuts for a few months.
