NZD/USD holds steady near monthly top, around 0.5730 amid RBNZ's hawkish stance

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The NZD/USD pair holds steady near the monthly high, around the 0.5730 region, during the Asian session on Friday and looks to build on its strong move up witnessed over the past week or so.

NZD/USD sticks to a bullish bias on the back of the RBNZ’s hawkish outlook on the policy path.
Rising December Fed rate cut bets keep the USD on the defensive and lend additional support.
The upbeat market mood further underpins the risk-sensitive Kiwi and favors bullish traders.

The NZD/USD pair holds steady near the monthly high, around the 0.5730 region, during the Asian session on Friday and looks to build on its strong move up witnessed over the past week or so. Bulls, however, need to wait for a sustained break through a short-term descending trend-line resistance, extending from the October monthly peak, before placing fresh bets.

The New Zealand Dollar (NZD) continues to draw support from the Reserve Bank of New Zealand's (RBNZ) hawkish outlook on the future policy path, which, in turn, is seen as a key factor acting as a tailwind for the NZD/USD pair. The RBNZ delivered a fully priced 25 basis points (bps) rate cut earlier this week and signaled an end to its easing cycle. Adding to this, the better-than-expected release of New Zealand Retail Sales on Thursday, along with the upbeat market mood, benefits the risk-sensitive Kiwi.

The US Dollar (USD), on the other hand, struggles to capitalize on the previous day's modest bounce from an over one-week low amid the growing acceptance that the Federal Reserve (Fed) will lower borrowing costs again in December. The bets were lifted by the recent dovish comments from several Fed officials. Moreover, a mixed set of US economic indicators released this week did little to alter market expectations, which, in turn, failed to assist the USD to lure buyers or lend support to the NZD/USD pair.

Moving ahead, there isn't any relevant market-moving economic data due for release from the US on Friday. Nevertheless, spot prices remain on track to register strong weekly gains. Moreover, the aforementioned fundamental backdrop backs the case for an extension of the recent goodish recovery move from the 0.5580 region, or the lowest level since April, touched last week.

New Zealand Dollar Price Last 7 Days

The table below shows the percentage change of New Zealand Dollar (NZD) against listed major currencies last 7 days. New Zealand Dollar was the strongest against the US Dollar.

	USD	EUR	GBP	JPY	CAD	AUD	NZD	CHF
USD		-0.61%	-1.29%	-0.77%	-0.51%	-1.44%	-2.42%	-0.17%
EUR	0.61%		-0.68%	-0.18%	0.10%	-0.83%	-1.82%	0.46%
GBP	1.29%	0.68%		0.54%	0.79%	-0.15%	-1.14%	1.15%
JPY	0.77%	0.18%	-0.54%		0.28%	-0.67%	-1.67%	0.63%
CAD	0.51%	-0.10%	-0.79%	-0.28%		-0.94%	-1.93%	0.36%
AUD	1.44%	0.83%	0.15%	0.67%	0.94%		-1.00%	1.30%
NZD	2.42%	1.82%	1.14%	1.67%	1.93%	1.00%		2.32%
CHF	0.17%	-0.46%	-1.15%	-0.63%	-0.36%	-1.30%	-2.32%

The heat map shows percentage changes of major currencies against each other. The base currency is picked from the left column, while the quote currency is picked from the top row. For example, if you pick the New Zealand Dollar from the left column and move along the horizontal line to the US Dollar, the percentage change displayed in the box will represent NZD (base)/USD (quote).