Antipodean Currencies Rise Amid Risk Appetite

(RTTNews) - The Antipodean currencies such as the Australia and the New Zealand dollars strengthened against their major currencies in the Asian session on Tuesday, as Asian stock markets traded higher, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight, amid optimism the U.S. Fed could resort to cutting interest rates as soon as March 2024.

Traders seem reluctant to make significant moves ahead of the Fed's monetary policy announcement on Wednesday. The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) begin its two-day monetary policy meeting later in the day.

Although stocks continued to benefit from the optimism about the outlook for interest rates, traders are likely to focus more closely on the central bank's accompanying statement and projections.

The markets also await a slew of central bank decisions this week, including the European Central Bank, the Bank of England, the Swiss National Bank and the Norges Bank.

Crude oil futures settled marginally higher due to continued uncertainty about the outlook for energy demand. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures ended with a small gain of $0.09 or 0.13 percent at $71.32 a barrel.

In economic news, data from National Australia Bank showed that Australia business confidence as well as conditions softened in November indicating that economic growth is unlikely to improve. The business confidence index fell to -9 in November from -3 in October. The index dropped for the second straight month and hit its lowest since 2012, excluding the pandemic period.

The business conditions indicator posted 9, down from 13 in the previous month. The index reached the lowest level since early 2022.

Also, data from Statistics New Zealand showed that the total value of electronic card retail sales climbed a seasonally adjusted 1.6 percent on month in November. That beat forecasts for an increase of 1.2 percent and was up from the upwardly revised 0.6 percent decline in October.

On a yearly basis, electronic retail sales jumped 2.1 percent, again exceeding expectations for a gain of 1.5 percent following the 2.0 percent contraction in the previous month.

In the Asian trading now, the Australian dollar rose to 4-day highs of 0.6598 against the U.S. dollar and 1.6324 against the euro, from yesterday's closing quotes of 0.6565 and 1.6385, respectively. If the aussie extends its uptrend, it is likely to find resistance around 0.68 against the greenback and 1.61 against the euro.

Against the yen and the Canadian dollar, the aussie edged up to 96.02 and 0.8942 from Monday's closing quotes of 95.96 and 0.8911, respectively. The aussie may test resistance around 97.00 against the yen and 0.90 against the loonie.

The NZ dollar rose to 4-day highs of 0.6159 against the U.S. dollar and 1.7485 against the euro, from yesterday's closing quotes of 0.6121 and 1.7572, respectively. If the kiwi extends its uptrend, it is likely to find resistance around 0.63 against the greenback and 1.73 against the euro.

Against the yen and the Australian dollar, the kiwi advanced to 89.60 and 1.0708 from Monday's closing quotes of 89.45 and 1.0720, respectively. On the upside, 91.00 against the yen and 1.06 against the aussie are seen as the next resistance levels for the kiwi.

Looking ahead, Germany's wholesale prices for November and ZEW economic confidence survey results for December are due to be released in the European session.

In the New York session, U.S. inflation data for November, U.S. Redbook report and U.S. Federal budget statement for November are slated for release.