Kiwi crumbles as RBNZ tries to get ahead of...>

FOREX: Kiwi crumbles as RBNZ tries to get ahead of the curve

-NZD sits right at the bottom of the G10 FX table Wednesday as the RBNZ looked

to get ahead of the curve with a surprisingly large 50bps cut to benchmark

rates. This puts Kiwi rates at all time lows of 1.00% and the currency responded

by falling to the lowest levels since early 2016 of $0.6378 in European hours.

Much of the NZD selling pressure also filtered into its AUD counterpart, which

also sits lower against most other majors.

-The JPY is in the green Wednesday, but USD/JPY remains above the week's lows of

Y105.52. It's likely the BoJ and Japanese Ministry of Finance are keeping a keen

eye on the rate as the bounce in US equities Tuesday did little to assuage

concerns of a more protracted slide in global risk appetite. China FX remains in

the spotlight, with USD/CNY spending the session above 7.00 for a third session,

closing onshore trade at multi-year highs.

-Datapoints are few and far between Wednesday with Canadian Ivey PMI the

highlight at 1500BST/1000ET. Perhaps more importantly, Fed's Evans speaks at

1430BST/0930ET. As an arch-dove, Evans comments will be closely watched.