NZD/USD Eyes Neckline Retest, PM Ardern Discusses Travel Bubble With Oz

NZD/USD moved higher on Tuesday, aided by broader USD sales ahead of the presidential debate and the end of the quarter. Buying pressure allowed the rate to attack the neckline of a double top formation completed last week, but topside impetus faded at the retest.

• The rate has picked up a bid this morning and last trades +8 pips at $0.6595. From a technical perspective, focus remains on the neckline & Sep 9 low/yesterday's high of $0.6601/03. A firm push through these levels would breathe life into the bullish case, opening up Sep 18 multi-month high of $0.6798. Conversely, a retreat under the 100-DMA/Sep 24 low at $0.6514/12 would return focus to Aug 20 low/23.6% retracement of the YtD range at $0.6489/85, the key near-term support.
• New Zealand's building permits rose 0.3% M/M in Aug after a 4.5% decline in Jul, per the data released this morning.
• A round of morning interviews with PM Ardern centred around a potential trans-Tasman travel bubble. Ardern discussed the matter with Australian PM Morrison yesterday and suggested that implementing a coronavirus "hotspot" system in Australia could help make further progress, if Canberra offers some more clarity on its details. When prompted, she reacted positively to the idea of re-opening one-way travel from NZ to Oz at the early stage of moving towards a more comprehensive travel bubble.
• Focus moves to final ANZ Business Confidence, due later today, as well as ANZ Consumer Confidence, due Friday.