Good morning, afternoon, or evening depending on where you are on the planet (or off it :-D), and welcome to the kick-off of the FX week.

With only the New Zealand market open at this time, market liquidity is super thin compared to most other times of the trading week, so please take care out there.
Here’s the early price guide so we can see what the Kiwis are up to:

  • EUR/USD 1.3716
  • USD/JPY 102.80
  • GBP/USD 1.6345
  • USD/CHF 0.8922
  • USD/CAD 1.0640
  • AUD/USD 0.9136 (gapped to a higher opening on the strong China trade data over the weekend)
  • NZD/USD 0.8291

Again, the usual caveats apply – it is relatively illiquid and prices can move sharply on not very much at all.

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The news over the weekend included the strong Chinese trade balance, with the trade surplus coming in 50 percent above expectations:

China November trade balance +$33.80bn

  • $21.20bn was the expected
  • $31.10bn was prior

Exports at +12.7% y/y

  • expected +7.0%, prior was +5.6%

Imports at +5.3% y/y

  • expected +7.0%, prior was +7.6%