NZ dollar unmoved by Jerome Powell, Grant Robertson or business confidence

Finance Minister Grant Robertson. Photo / File

The New Zealand dollar was unmoved by comments from Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell or NZ Finance Minister Grant Robertson or by the latest survey showing business confidence - while negative - is improving.

The kiwi was trading at 64.21 US cents at 5pm in Wellington from 64.25 cents at the same time yesterday while the trade-weighted index was at 71.20 from 71.24.

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In written testimony prepared for the House Financial Services Committee, which Powell will appear before overnight NZ time, the Fed chair stressed the importance of keeping the Covid-19 virus contained.

The US economy had entered a new phase sooner than expected, but "while this bounce-back in economic activity is welcome, it also presents new challenges – notably the need to keep the virus in check," Powell's testimony said.

However, the data coming out of the US suggest the virus isn't in check; the US reported another 44,734 new cases of infection for Monday, the second-highest ever and the fifth consecutive day in which new cases exceeded 40,000.

Still, the US death toll appears to be declining with the 346 deaths on Monday bringing that nation's total to 128,783.

"It's hardly a value-add comment," said Mike Shirley, a dealer at Kiwibank, adding that the market paid attention then shrugged it off.

Meanwhile, Robertson told a webinar hosted by Bloomberg that the NZ economy is bouncing back quicker than expected after the lockdown ended but that the global environment was worse.

He also warned that foreign students, normally a major contributor to the NZ economy, are unlikely to return this year because of the time it will take to establish the necessary quarantine facilities.

Kiwibank's Shirley noted that the domestic currency was rallying at the time Robertson spoke but "whether it was because of anything he said, who knows."

ANZ's latest survey of business confidence showed a net 34 per cent of respondents expect the economy to deteriorate in the coming year, a sharp improvement from the net 42 per cent who were negative in May.

"A vigorous bounce out of lockdown is evident in the numbers, but the levels are consistent with our view that the recession is just starting," said ANZ chief economist Sharon Zollner.

Shirley said the NZ dollar has been hugging the middle of its current range from 64 US cents to 64.50 cents and "there was nothing to make the market want to break out of that" today.

The kiwi dollar was trading at 93.40 Australian cents from 93.47 cents at 5pm yesterday, at 52.18 British pence from 51.96 pence, at 57.13 euro cents from 57.16 cents, at 69.16 yen from 68.81 yen and at 4.5377 Chinese yuan from 4.5481 yuan.

The bid price on the two-year swap was 0.1930 per cent, up from 0.1900 per cent, while the 10-year swap was at 0.7150 per cent from 0.7480 per cent yesterday.