NZD/USD: outlook for March 20-24

The kiwi dollar jumped to 0.7050 on Wednesday after Fed’s officials refused to accelerate the current pace of the monetary tightening. Towards the end of the past week, there was a pullback towards 0.6970. New Zealand’s annual growth rate slowed further despite surging immigration, low borrowing costs and evident activity in the housing sector. This casts doubt on the latest central bank’s projection that growth would accelerate to more than 4% by the second half of 2017.

The main focus of the next week will be on the Reserve Bank of New Zealand monetary policy meeting on Thursday. Most analysts expect the central bank to stay on hold adopting a wait-and-see approach. Ahead of the meeting, we will get an update of global dairy prices. Then we will be waiting for Thursday’s Fed Chair Yellen speech followed by the comments on the US economic outlook from other FOMC members.

The technical outlook for the pair is neutral. NZD/USD might spend a few days in the consolidation phase before facing rather sturdy resistances at 0.7050 (38.2% Fibo retracement level from last year low), 0.7120 and 0.7140. A pullback below 0.6940 would indicate that the immediate upward pressure has eased and the way towards the next support at 0.6915 (50% Fibo retracement level) is open.