NZD/USD holds in positive territory ahead of key US events

• NZD/USD bulls stay in charge on the softness in the US Dollar.
• USD data will be key in the build-up to the Fed next week. 

NZD/USD is up on the day as the US Dollar bulls fold ahead of key data in the build-up to the Federal Reserve (Fed) meeting next week. The Kiwi has rallied from a low of 0.6326 and reached a high of 0.6388 with the US Dollar touching its lowest level since Monday as per the DXY index.

 The index eased to a low of 104.724 while investors positioned themselves ahead of key US inflation data on Friday and next week. The slide in the greenback comes at the same time a rise in weekly jobless claims suggested that the labour market is slowing down. Weekly jobless claims rose to 230K, as expected. Continuing claims rose to 1.671M, topping the forecast of 1.6M and the data comes ahead of next week's Federal Reserve meeting.

The data falls ahead of Friday's Producer Price Index (PPI) and the University of Michigan's consumer sentiment survey and then next week's November Consumer Price Index will be due. Investors w look for any signs that the Federal Reserve is getting ready to pause its hikes.

Domestically,  local data today will give a final steer on how third quarter Gross Domestic Product GDP (due next week) is shaping up, but analysts at ANZ Bank said it is unlikely to perturb FX markets much. As with most of the year, the focus is offshore, they said.

''In that regard, tonight’s US PPI data will be interesting, as it’ll highlight any upstream pressures in CPI, due out next week – which, recall, was the main catalyst for the turn in the USD last month. We thus continue to brace for volatility, especially with US 10yr bond yields now 1% below where we expect the fed funds rate to be after next week’s decision as markets all but ignore hawkish elements of Fed rhetoric. Buckle up!''