NZD/USD extends decline on poor China services, 0.6950 closer

The Kiwi accelerates its downslide and moves further away from 0.70 handle, following the release of worse-than expected Chinese services PMI report for March.

NZD/USD rejected near 5-DMA at 0.6984

NZD/USD surrenders entire gains and prints daily lows near 0.6960 levels, as the selling pressure intensified on a downside surprise delivered by the Chinese services PMI data. China’s Caixin March Services PMI came in at 52.2 vs 52.6 last and 53.2 expectations.

The renewed weakness surrounding the NZD/USD pair can be also partly attributed to a minor-recovery seen in the USD against most of its majors after the recent Fed minutes induced sell-off.

The FOMC minutes did reveal that the committee looks to trim its balance sheet size this year by a $4.5 trillion, although a lack of details on the same weighed heavily on the greenback.

Moreover, widespread risk-aversion across Asia ahead of the Trump-Xi Summit, also dents the sentiment around the higher-yielding currency NZD. In the meantime, markets look forward to the US macro news and Trump headlines for fresh take on the prices.

NZD/USD Levels to consider

To the upside, the next resistance is located at 0.7002/15 (10 & 20-DMA), above which it could extend gains to 7072/82 (50 & 100-DMA) and from there to 0.7145/50 (200-DMA/ key resistance). To the downside immediate support might be located at 0.6950 (psychological levels), and from there to 0.6907/00 (Mar 15 low/ zero figure), below 0.6859 (Dec 23 low) would be tested.