Commodity Currencies Rise Amid Risk-on Mood

(RTTNews) - The commodity currencies such as Australia, the New Zealand and the Canadian dollars strengthened against their major counterparts in the Asian session on Thursday amid increased risk-on mood by the investors, with sharp gains across all markets in the region after U.S. President Donald Trump announced a 90-day pause on new "reciprocal tariffs" on most countries to allow for negotiations. However, Trump excluded China from the pause.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that tariffs would be brought down during the 90-day pause to a "universal 10 percent" level on most countries, including Canada.

However, the pause will not apply to China, as Trump announced he is raising the tariff on the country to 125 percent due to the "lack of respect" they have shown to the world's markets.

The higher tariffs on China come after the country retaliated to a previous increase by announcing it will raise its tariffs on U.S. goods to 84 percent from 34 percent just after midnight on Thursday.

Gains across all sectors led by mining and technology stocks, also led to the upturn of the commodity linked currencies such as AUD, NZD and CAD.

Crude oil prices extended their recent nosedive but showed a substantial turnaround over the course of the day. West Texas Intermediate crude for May delivery soared $2.77 or 4.7 percent to $62.35 a barrel.

With hopes of fresh trade talks between Australia and the European Union (EU), the Australian dollar (AUD) is gaining ground.

In economic news, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed that the China consumer prices dropped unexpectedly by 0.1 percent on a yearly basis, following the 0.7 percent fall in February. Prices were expected to remain flat in March. Core inflation that excludes prices of food and energy came in at 0.5 percent. This has reversed a 0.1 percent fall in February.

Driven by ample supply, food prices fell 1.4 percent from the last year. On the other hand, non-food prices grew 0.2 percent in March.

In the first quarter, consumer prices edged down 0.1 percent from the same period last year.

Month-on-month, consumer prices slid 0.4 percent in March, which was double the expected rate of fall of 0.2 percent.

Another data from the NBS showed that producer prices declined 2.5 percent year-on-year in March, worse than economists' forecast of 2.3 percent fall and February's 2.2 percent decrease. A new schedule for talks with Australian Trade Minister Don Farrell was suggested by EU Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic.

In the Asian trading today, the Australian dollar rose to 6-day highs of 0.6204 against the U.S. dollar, 1.7699 against the euro and 0.8723 against the Canadian dollar, from yesterday's closing quotes of 0.6133, 1.7856 and 0.8649, respectively. If the aussie extends its uptrend, it is likely to find resistance around 0.64 against the greenback, 1.74 against the euro and 0.91 against the loonie.

Against the yen, the aussie advanced to 91.11 from yesterday's closing value of 90.41. On the upside, 95.00 is seen as the next resistance level for the aussie.

The aussie edged up to 1.0881 against the NZ dollar, from a recent low of 1.0852. The next possible upside target for the aussie is seen around the 1.11 region.

The NZ dollar rose to 6-day highs of 0.5710 against the U.S. dollar and 83.84 against the yen, from yesterday's closing quotes of 0.5636 and 83.08, respectively. If the kiwi extends its uptrend, it is likely to find resistance around 0.58 against the greenback and 88.00 against the yen.

Against the euro, the kiwi climbed to a 6-day high of 1.9233 from Wednesday's closing value of 1.9430. On the upside, 1.87 is seen as the next resistance level for the kiwi.

The Canadian dollar rose to a 6-day high of 1.4060 against U.S. dollar, from yesterday's closing value of 1.4103. The loonie may test resistance around the 1.39 region.

Against the yen and the euro, the loonie edged up to 104.51 and 1.5431 from recent lows of 103.98 and 1.5495, respectively. If the loonie extends its uptrend, it is likely to find resistance around 108.00 against the yen and 1.51 against the euro.

Looking ahead, the Bank of England publishes credit conditions survey results are due at 4:30 am ET in the European session.

In the New York session, Canada building permits for February, U.S. CPI data for March, U.S. weekly jobless claims data, U.S. WASDE report are slated for release.