NZD/USD struggles to hold above 0.6300 amid soft New Zealand data

NZD/USD continues the gradual weakness from a three-day high of 0.6335, marked yesterday, while declining to 0.6306 during early Friday morning in Asia. While the broad US dollar weakness pulled the pair back from multi-week high the previous day, recently downbeat data, as well as the sustained fears of coronavirus (COVID-19), exert downside pressure on the pair.

The latest data from New Zealand suggest February month ANZ – Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence weakened to 122.1 from 122.7 whereas Total Filled Jobs for January slipped to 2.2M versus 2.21M prior.

The US dollar dropped across the board on Thursday as diving equities and bonds drew traders off the greenback. The reason could be a nascent stage of the coronavirus outbreak in the US. The world’s largest economy registers some firsts as far as the COVID-19 is concerned. However, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) showed plans to increase testing and research.

That said, the US 10-year treasury yields dropped to the record low of 1.244% the previous day before closing around 1.274% while Wall Street benchmarks marked 4.0% losses each.

The latest article from South China Morning Post (SCMP) signals the second wave of coronavirus-led supply chain disruptions in China, Japan and South Korea, which in turn keeps the risk aversion on the cards.

However, any clues of the cure and/or positive news from the US could help keep the latest pullback in the kiwi. On the economic calendar, the US data will be in the spotlight during the later part of the day.

Technical Analysis

Failure to provide a daily closing beyond November 2019 bottom close to 0.6315 continues to drag the quote towards lows marked during October 2019 around 0.6240 and 0.6200.