The Reserve Bank of New Zealand kept rates unchanged at 1.75 percent on Thursday as was expected, but its accompanying comments were seen as hawkish by markets. In response, the Kiwi dollar traded at $0.6966 at 7:03 a.m. HK/SIN after spiking as high as $0.6973 in the Wednesday session. That compared to levels around the $0.692 handle seen before the announcement.
President Donald Trump’s tour of Asia also remained in the spotlight. Trump is expected to discuss issues relating to trade and North Korea with Chinese leaders in Beijing on Thursday. The president also took to Twitter to warn North Korea not to underestimate the U.S., repeating statements he had made when addressing South Korea’s National Assembly on Wednesday.
Stateside, off-year elections saw Democrats score victories in Virginia and New Jersey in Tuesday polls. While “there was some chatter about yesterday’s U.S. governor elections … and what they could mean or signal about the viability of some of the U.S. administration’s reforms,” that had little impact on the markets, Martin Whetton, a strategist at ANZ, said in a note.
On the matter of tax reform, U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan indicated there would still be growth even with a phased implementation of corporate tax cuts, Reuters said. That followed a Washington Post report on Tuesday that said a one-year delay in the implementation of tax reform measures was being considered.
