New Zealand dollar extends uptrend against majors

The New Zealand dollar extended Wednesday's Asian session uptrend against its major counterparts during early European deals also. The NZ dollar rose to 2-day highs against the Aussie and the euro.

The latest monthly business outlook survey from the National Bank of New Zealand, or NBNZ said today that New Zealand's business confidence balance improved to minus 20.5 in August from minus 43.2 reported in July. The balance of activity outlook recovered in August to 4.7 from minus 8.2 in the prior month.

The kiwi hit highs of 0.7035 against the US dollar and 76.79 against the Japanese yen by about 2:30 am ET Wednesday, compared to previous day's closing values of 0.6977 and 76.48, respectively.

At about 11:10 pm ET Tuesday's, the NZ dollar hit a 2-day high of 1.2226 against the Australian currency, which may be compared to Tuesday's New York session closing value of 1.2277.

In trading against its European counterpart, the New Zealand kiwi showed strength during Wednesday's early trading. At about 2:35 am ET, the kiwi climbed to a 2-day high of 2.0903 against the euro, up from Tuesday's closing value of 2.1008.

The Federal Statistical Office announced that the German import price inflation rose to 9.3% year-on-year in July from 8.9% recorded in June. This was the fastest growth since November 2000, when import prices climbed 10.6%. Economists were expecting an annual increase of 9.2% in July. Compared to June, import prices were up 0.6%, faster than the 0.5% growth expected.

Apart from the release of the Italian August consumer confidence index at 3:30 am ET, the traders have nothing to digest in today's European session. From US, the July durable goods orders and Federal Reserve board member Lockhart's speech on Inflation at Georgia State are scheduled in the New York session. Copyright(c) 2008 RealTimeTraders.com, Inc. All Rights Reserved