New Zealand Returns From Holidays After NZD Hits Multi-Week Highs

NZD/USD crept higher in tandem with its commodity-tied peers Monday, as BBG Commodity Index rallied on the back of a solid performance from iron ore and copper. Kiwi liquidity was thinned out by a public holiday in New Zealand.

• For the record, in an op-ed written for interest.co.nz, RBNZ Gov Orr urged banks to keep providing banking services, including money remittances, to the Pacific Islands. Elsewhere, FinMin Robertson suggested that NZ might open travel bubbles with neighbouring countries "in the near future."
• Elsewhere, Robertson acknowledged potential downsides of the proposal to give the Finance Minister greater power to restrict lending, but argued that it would enable the gov't to address "distributional trade-offs and societal preferences."
• The rate has edged away from yesterday's multi-week high and last trades at $0.7230, 6 pips worse off. Bears look for a slide through Apr 22 low of $0.7146, towards Apr 19 low of $0.7122. Bulls need a clearance of yesterday's peak at $0.7243 before targeting Mar 18 high of $0.7269.
• New Zealand's trade balance & final ANZ Business Confidence are due Thursday, while ANZ Consumer Confidence comes out Friday.