NZD/USD trades sideways near 0.6150 ahead of US Manufacturing PMI

The NZD/USD pair is stuck in a tight range near 0.6150 in Monday’s Asian session. The Kiwi asset trades inside Friday’s trading range, suggesting indecisiveness among market participants ahead of a busy United States (US) data-packed week.

S&P 500 futures have posted significant gains in the Asian session, exhibiting investors' strong risk appetite. The US Dollar Index (DXY), which tracks the Greenback’s value against six major currencies, demonstrates a subdued performance around 104.60. 10-year US Treasury Yields declined to 4.49% even though uncertainty over the Federal Reserve (Fed) pivoting to policy normalization has deepened.

Strong appeal for risk-perceived assets is majorly driven by upbeat Caixin Manufacturing PMI data for May. The IHS Markit reported that factory activity in the world’s second-largest economy rose at a faster pace to 51.7 from the consensus of 51.5 and the prior reading of 51.4. This has improved global economic prospects.

This has also improved the New Zealand Dollar’s appeal. The NZ economy is one of China's leading trading partners, and the latter’s strong economic outlook improves the Kiwi dollar’s prospects.

Doubts over the Fed beginning to reduce interest rates from their current levels in September deepened after the US Personal Consumption Expenditure Price Index (PCE) report for April showed that price pressures were stubbornly elevated. The core PCE inflation, which strips off volatile food and energy items and is the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge, grew steadily by 2.8%. However, on a month-on-month basis, the underlying inflation data rose at a slower pace of 0.2% from the estimates and the former reading of 0.3%. The growth rate was consistent with the pace required for inflation to sustainably return to the 2% target.

In today’s session, investors will shift focus to the US ISM Manufacturing PMI data for May, which will be published at 14:00 GMT. The PMI is estimated to have improved to 49.8 from the former reading of 49.2. However, a figure below the 50.0 threshold is considered a contraction.