NZD/USD consolidates gains around 0.7300 in quiet session
- NZD/USD touched its highest level since early March at 0.7301 on Friday.
- US Dollar Index struggles to erase last week's losses.
- Market action is likely to remain subdued in the remainder of the day.
The NZD/USD pair rose sharply on Friday and gained more than 100 pips in the previous week. In the absence of significant fundamental drivers, the pair started the new week in a relatively calm manner and seems to have gone into a consolidation phase around 0.7300, where it was up 0.3% on a daily basis.
USD remains on the back foot on Monday
The data published by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics showed on Friday that Nonfarm Payrolls (NFP) in April rose by only 266,000. This reading missed the market expectation of 978,000 by a huge margin and triggered a USD selloff ahead of the weekend. The US Dollar Index continues to have a difficult time finding demand on Monday and was last seen losing 0.1% at 90.12, allowing NZD/USD to stay in the positive territory.
There won't be any macroeconomic data releases from the US and the USD's market valuation is likely to impact NZD/USD's movements.
In the meantime, the S&P 500 Futures are flat on the day, suggesting that Wall Street's main indexes will open near last week's closing levels.
On Tuesday, Electronic Card Retails Sales data from New Zealand will be looked upon for fresh impetus.
Technical levels to watch for