Kiwi weaker after Q1 GDP weaker than seen, Australia jobs eyed
Investing.com - The kiwi fell in Asia on Thursday after weaker than expected first quarter GDP and after the Federal Reserve laid out its forecasts for rates and trimming its balance sheet and investors looked ahead to regional data on Australian jobs.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was last quoted down 0.06% to 96.91.
In New Zealand, first quarter GDP rose 0.5% on quarter, missing the 0.7% gain seen and at 2.5% on year, below the 2.7% expected. Later, Australia reports jobs data with the employment change for May seen adding 10,000 new workers under a participation rate of 64.8% for a steady unemployment rate of 5.7%.
NZD/USD traded at 0.7248, down 0.29% after of the data and AUD/USD traded at 0.7592, up 0.05%. USD/JPY changed hands at 109.29, down 0.27%.
The Fed raised interest rates as expected to 1.25% on Wednesday, the second quarter percentage point hike in three months and said it would begin cutting its holdings of bonds and other securities this year as previously announced and maintained a view for three rate hikes this year.
Overnight, the dollar trended weaker after a pair of economic reports undershot expectations triggering concerns about a slowdown in the U.S. economy.
U.S. consumer prices, a measure of inflation, fell 0.1% in May, as a fall in energy prices, airline fares and apparel weighed on the pace of inflation, the labor department said. The measure of inflation missed forecasts of a 0.2% rise.
Meanwhile Core Retail Sales sustained their biggest drop in 16 months to 0.3%, according to the commerce department.
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