US stocks declined yesterday after a number of companies released weaker-than-expected results. Before the market opened, Caterpillar released results that missed the consensus estimate and lowered its guidance. The same happened to Nvidia, which said that its Chinese sales were expected to slow. In recent weeks, a number of companies like Apple, Intel, and Jaguar Land Rover have lowered their growth partly because of the problems in the country. This month, China released GDP and PMI numbers that missed the consensus estimate.
The New Zealand dollar rose today after positive trade numbers. The data released today showed that the country’s export increased to $5.48 billion from $4.91 billion in November. At the same time, imports decreased to $5.22 billion, which was lower than the expected $5.86 billion. As a result, the trade surplus increased to $264 million, which was better than the expected $225 million. The NAB business confidence for December remained unchanged at 3.
In Asia, stocks declined following the lower Wall Street session. The drop was also mostly because of the United States, which announced that it was filing charges against Huawei and its CFO, Meng Wanzhou. The justice department said that the company was charged with stealing intellectual property from AT&T, the telecommunications company. It was also accused of skirting sanctions put in place by the US in Iran. In recent months, the US has warned its allies against using Huawei devices because it believed its systems exposes them to Chinese surveillance. Huawei has denied such allegations. Furthermore, no evidence has been revealed to show that Huawei is engaged in surveillance for the Chinese.
EUR/USD
The EUR/USD pair was relatively unchanged in overnight trading. The pair remained close to yesterday’s high of 1.1443, which was higher than the YTD low of 1.1288. On the hourly chart, the pair’s current price is below the 21-day and 42-day EMAs and is along the 50% Fibonacci Retracement level. Any further upward movements will likely take the pair to the 61.8% Fibonacci Retracement level of 1.1462.
NZD/USD
The NZD/USD pair rose slightly today after positive trade numbers from New Zealand. The pair reached a high of 0.6840. The current price is along the 21-day EMA but above the 42-day EMA. It is also between the 61.8% and 100% Fibonacci Retracement level. The RSI, which was dropping yesterday has started moving up. There is a possibility that the pair will continue the upward trend. If it does, it will likely test the important level of 0.6900
USD/JPY
The USD/JPY pair moved up by a few pips in the Asian session, halting the decline that started on Friday. The pair’s current price is along the important support shown in the chart below. The double EMAs show that the pair could continue the downward trend. This is confirmed by the Average Directional Index and the Parabolic SAR indicator as shown below.
