Ardern States NZ Can Avoid Recession

To recap, NZD/USD spent most of the post-Asia close on Friday under pressure. We dipped as far as 0.6270, but closed just above 0.6310. We dipped sub 0.6300 in early trade today, on the back of EUR weakness, but now sit back at 0.6310.

• On the data front today sees the performance of services index for May out. The last print was 51.4, while the manufacturing print for May rose to 52.9 from 51.2 last week.
• NZ PM Ardern stated the economy was well positioned to avoid a recession, despite last week's data showing an unexpected Q1 drop in GDP.
• She also wouldn't state if the petrol excise tax cut would be extended beyond August of this year.
• Cross asset drivers were mixed for NZD through the tail end of last week, with commodities weakening further, while equities sent slightly more positive signals (VIX dipping back to 31.1%, -1.82 on Friday).
• NZD underperformed against most G10 FX on Friday, although was clearly firmer against AUD and JPY. The AUD/NZD cross is back sub 1.1000, well down from highs above 1.1160 last week.