NZD/USD News Send Price to MAs on Positive Q4 Employment Figures
NZD/USD was finding resistance at the 20-daily SMA last week, while the 200 SMA was acting as support. On Friday the 200 SMA was broken as the decline accelerated following the great NFP report from the USD and now it seems like this moving average is turning into resistance, which is a bearish sign, pointing to further downside.
The next target for this pair is now the major support zone at 0.6, which seems pretty close as NZD/USD has been reaching lower highs since the end of December, indicating that sellers maintain control. Buyers put up a fight and they created a support zone below 0.61. But the attempt to reverse higher after some encouraging news from China which lifted risk sentiment for commodity dollars failed at the 20 SMA (gray), so the downtrend resumed again.
NZD/USD Chart Daily – Will MAs Turn into Resistance?
Last night we had the employment report from New Zealand, which was expected to show a big jump in the unemployment rate, from 3.9% to 4.3%. The labour cost index is predicted to stay unchanged at 0.8%, the same as previously. Technically, the NZD/USD price was trading below the 200-day moving average at 0.6085 ahead of the data.
New Zealand Employment Report for Q4 2023
- Unemployment Rate (Q4): 4.0%, lower than the expected 4.2% and slightly higher than the Q3 rate of 3.9%.
- Job Growth (Q4): Increased by 0.4%, surpassing expectations of 0.3%.
- Participation Rate (Q4): Recorded at 71.9%, slightly below the expected 72.0%.
- Labour Cost Index (QoQ): Rose by 1.0%, exceeding the anticipated 0.8% increase.
- Labour Cost Index (YoY): Showed a growth of 3.9%, slightly higher than the expected 3.8%.
Overall, the New Zealand labor market saw an increase in the unemployment rate alongside positive job growth in the fourth quarter of 2023. But the tick higher was minimal compared to expectations. Additionally, both the quarterly and yearly labor cost indexes exhibited growth, indicating an upward trend in labor costs during this period.
NZD/USD was trading at 0.6077 right before the data. A 90% decrease is expected at the July 10 meeting. The NZD/USD exchange rate surged to 0.6090 following the news. It’s the highest unemployment rate since Q2 2021, but it’s better than expected, even accounting for the drop in participation. In addition, the pay figures are rather high.
NZD/USD Live Chart
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