NZD/USD stays on the front foot amid greenback weakness, trade optimism

• NZD/USD awaits fresh catalyst around multi-month high.
• Downbeat activity numbers dragged the USD down.
• ANZ Business Confidence, Activity Outlook can offer immediate direction.

NZD/USD seesaws around 0.6600 while keeping the earlier gains at the start of Tuesday’s Asian session. The kiwi pair recently benefited from the US Dollar (USD) weakness, upbeat data from China and optimism surrounding the trade relations between the United States (US) and Beijing.

Be it sluggish outcomes of the US NY Empire State Manufacturing Index or better than forecast figures of China’s data dump, NZD/USD benefited from all on Monday. Also increasing the trade optimism was positive statements from the US and Chinese diplomats concerning their trade relations. Recently, US President Donald Trump’s Advisor Larry Kudlow said that the US exports to China will be double with the latest phase-one.

The optimism could also be gauged from the latest readings of New Zealand’s fourth quarter (Q4) Westpac Consumer Survey. The confidence index beat 103.5 forecastand 103.1 prior with a wide margin to 109.9.

While ANZ Business Confidence and Activity Outlook for December can offer immediate direction to the pair, major attention will be on Thursday’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Additionally, minutes of the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) latest monetary policy can also act as a catalyst for the pair. It’s worth mentioning that figures from the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) are likely to support the recent pick-up in trade optimism.

On the other hand, the US economic calendar is decorated by the housing numbers, Industrial Production and Fedspeak.

Technical Analysis

Sellers are looking for entry below 10-day Simple Moving Average (SMA) level of 0.6565 whereas buyers can take aim at early-January lows near 0.6660.