Summary:

  • New Zealand dollar jumps as a fresh poll shows a rising advantage of the National Party over the Labor
  • API shows a smaller than anticipated build in oil stocks
  • Some interesting reports from Japan related to PM Abe
  • Mexican earthquake brings no impact on the peso

The Asian session has been subdued so far with indices trading not far away from their yesterday’s close. As far as the FX market is concerned, there have been no larger swings till 7:00 am BST, when a fresh poll from New Zealand has been released. It shows that the National Party has a 7pp lead over the Labor. Let us remind that the former is a ruling (in a coalition) party, hence markets favor it over the Labor. The NZDUSD jumped immediately as much as 50 pips. The general election will take place this Saturday.

link do file download linkThe NZDUSD jumps on a fresh poll giving the National Party a 7pp lead over the Labor. The pair could eye 0.7395 as its subsequent possible resistance. Source: xStation5

Taking a look at commodities, oil prices are slightly increasing with the WTI grade being a leader of gains (0.55%). The better performance could be justified by a lower than expected build in oil stocks reported by the American Petroleum Institute yesterday. It showed that US crude inventories climbed by 1.4 million barrels in the week ended September 15. Moreover, the data revealed that gasoline stocks declined by 5.1 million barrels another week on the row, in turn inventories of distillates fell by 6.1 million barrels. Keep in mind that the reading was afflicted by the hurricanes, hence it ought to be treated with a grain of salt. Notice, the US Department of Energy reported last week that oil output strongly rebounded which meant that side-effects of adverse weather conditions began subsiding.

link do file download linkWTI oil prices have stalled after striking $50. However, if they are able to stay above that level, a move toward an upper limit of a channel could be likely. Source: xStation5

On top of that, there were some interesting reports coming from Japan. PM Shinzo Abe announced yesterday that he will hold a press conference on Monday 25 which has something to do with the latest speculation that he could call a snap election. Afterward, the Reuters agency reported that PM Abe is set to delay the timing for balancing a primary budget from the current fiscal 2020 to later in the decade mainly on the back of spending on education, innovation on human resources and productivity.

At the end, it’s worth mentioning a powerful earthquake shook central Mexico on Tuesday, collapsing buildings in plumes of dust and killing at least 149 people. It came in the day of the anniversary of the 1985 quake which killed thousands of people and devastated large parts of the capital. Nevertheless, the Mexican peso has remained quite unimpressed so far losing against the greenback just 0.1%.