Consumer Confidence Declines But Job Ads Stay High

NZD/USD extended gains Thursday, as participants assessed the familiar themes of Russo-Ukrainian war and Fed Chair Powell's comments on monetary policy. The rate showed above the $0.6800 but gains were capped at $0.6809, the high print of Feb 23.

• NZD/USD now operates +5 pips at $0.6805, with bulls looking for a clean break above Feb 23/Jan 19 highs of $0.6809/12, which would shift focus to Jan 13 high of $0.6891. Bears look for a fall through Feb 28 low of $0.6656 towards Feb 24 low of $0.6631.
• New Zealand's job ads index fell 0.1% M/M last month from a record high printed in January, BNZ data showed, with businesses still keen to take on more employees.
• ANZ Consumer Confidence Index fell to 81.7 in February from 97.7 prior, landing at its lowest point since the data series began in 2004. ANZ flagged that households are concerned by the spread of Omicron as well as " rising costs of living, rising interest rates, cooling housing market and tighter credit availability."
• Next week's data highlights include volume of all buildings (Tuesday), m'fing activity (Wednesday), card spending (Thursday) as well as BusinessNZ M'fing PMI (Friday).