Was there intervention by the Reserve Bank of New Zealand today? Nothing was confirmed, but the intraday price action of the New Zealand dollar certainly suggests so. Around 3:15pm EST, the NZD/USD dropped 55 pips in 1 minute.
Having lived through many Bank of Japan interventions, this type of movement can only be related to one of two things. The first being intervention, the second being a big merger or acquisition flow. Given that the NZD/USD hit a fresh 22 year high today, there is a stronger chance that what we witnessed today was indeed intervention, especially since the move came at the exact same price level as the officially confirmed intervention seen on June 11th. It is not a stretch to say that the RBNZ is not happy with the persistent climb in the NZD/USD despite their first dose of intervention ever. What we have learned about intervention is that oftentimes it does not work. Even though the New Zealand economic calendar is chock full of key economic data next week including the trade balance, current account balance and GDP, the demand for high yielding currencies will continue to be the primary driver of the NZD. The Australian dollar fell in sympathy to the kiwi, after having soared to a fresh 16 year high. The only key event on the Australian calendar is leading indicators Monday night. The Canadian dollar on the other hand regained strength on the back of rebounding oil prices. The only noteworthy piece of CAD data is industrial and raw material prices.