Reversing its trend from last week, the NZD was the strongest performing currency over the past 24 hours. It sits around 0.8180 this morning. Yesterday’s Overseas Trade Indexes showed a much stronger than expected merchandise terms of trade figure. It lifted all of 7.5% in Q3 (2.9% consensus). There was obvious strength in dairy prices but price increases are now coming through in many other export categories. But the “real” surprise in the data was in merchandise export volumes. They fell a seasonally adjusted 2.1% in Q3, which technically suggests a slight dampening of Q3 GDP calculations. All up though, it was nothing to dampen a rebound in the NZD from last week’s lows. Opening the week around 0.8140 the NZD/USD now sits around 0.8180, having touched above 0.8220 overnight.
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