NZ Dollar Falls After China Trade Data

(RTTNews) - The New Zealand dollar weakened against other major currencies in the Asian session on Friday, as China's most recent trade figures indicated a slowing down of outside demand.

The official data showed that the trade surplus decreased to $96.18 billion from $102.64 billion in the previous month. The expected level was $97.0 billion.

China's exports grew more than expected in April despite the fall in exports to the U.S. Exports advanced 8.1 percent on a yearly basis in April, while economists had forecast a 1.9 percent rise. This followed a 12.4 percent increase in March.

At the same time, imports fell only 0.2 percent from a year ago, compared with the economists' forecast of a 5.9 percent decline. Moreover, the pace of decrease slowed from 4.3 percent fall posted in March.

Data showed that exports to the U.S. declined sharply by 21 percent in April, reflecting the US tariff hikes.

In the Asian trading today, the NZ dollar fell to nearly a 4-week low of 0.5871 against the U.S. dollar and a 4-day low of 1.0871 against the Australian dollar, from yesterday's closing quotes of 0.5900 and 1.0837, respectively. If the kiwi extends its downtrend, it is likely to find support around 0.55 against the greenback and 1.09 against the aussie.

Against the yen and the euro, the kiwi edged down to 85.66 and 1.9076 from Thursday's closing quotes of 86.11 and 1.9030, respectively. The kiwi may test support near 84.00 against the yen and 1.98 against the euro.

Looking ahead, U.K. NIESR Monthly GDP tracker for April, Canada jobs data for April and U.S. Baker Hughes oil rig count data are slated for release in the New York session.