New Zealand dollar down on growing trade deficit

Story link: New Zealand dollar down on growing trade deficit

The euro strengthened slightly on Thursday after the Ifo business climate indicator dropped less than had been expected in August, to 105, slightly offsetting the ZEW business sentiment index decline reported earlier this week.

At mid-afternoon in New York, the euro was 0.1 percent higher against both the Japanese yen and sterling, to ¥148.95 and £0.6762 respectively.

After an early gain in relation to the US dollar, however, the euro dropped after new data was released on US durable goods. Even though the figures were worse than had been anticipated, with durable goods orders down 2.4 percent in July, captial goods orders were up 1.5 percent and most of the drop in durable goods was put to the transport component of the measure.

The US dollar was at 0.1 percent higher versus the euro at $1.2780, while it also gained 0.1 percent on the yen, to ¥116.40. Meanwhile, sterling gained 0.1 percent on the dollar to $1.8940 even though there were analyst warnings that sterling might have come to count too much on demand from central banks.

The New Zealand dollar, meanwhile, was 0.3 percent lower versus the US dollar to $0.6379 on the news that its trade deficit grew significantly in July due not only to one-time items, but also to increased oil imports.