Australian dollar flies high on kiwi, yen as rate outlooks diverge
Corrects the milestone for AUD/NZD to NZ$1.1104, not NZ$1.1017, in paragraph 2
SYDNEY, July 11 (Reuters) -The Australian dollar stood near 20-month highs against the kiwi on Thursday as markets ramped up bets of imminent rate cuts in New Zealand, while it kept hitting new 33-year tops on the low-yielding yen.
The Aussie AUD=D3 held at NZ$1.1080, having hit a 20-month high of NZ$1.1104 on Wednesday after the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) unexpectedly opened the door to rate cuts, weighing down the kiwi. Resistance is at NZ$1.1088, the high from February 2023.
The dovish shift from RBNZ also spilled over to Australia, with swaps now implying a 20% chance of a rate rise from the Reserve Bank of Australia in August, compared with 30% before.
Still, the risk of another rate hike has helped the Aussie outperform overall, particularly against the Japanese yen as it hit another 33-year top of 109.21 yen AUDJPY=R on Thursday.
Against the greenback, the Australian dollar AUD=D3 was 0.1% higher at $0.6752, with resistance at the $0.6762.
The kiwi dollar NZD=D3 also inched 0.1% higher to $0.6088, having tumbled 0.7% overnight to as far as $0.6082 thanks to the dovish RBNZ. It has support at the 200-day moving average of $0.6075.
Two-year New Zealand swap rates NZDSM3NB2Y= fell by another 4 basis points to 4.575%, the lowest level in 20 months, after a tumble of 18 bps the day before.
"Given this communication (from the RBNZ), we judge that the August policy meeting is now very live," said Andrew Ticehurst, a senior economist at Nomura Australia.
"However, we will wait for Q2 CPI and labour market data before we make any change to our base case for a first rate cut in November."
Markets are implying a 50% chance that the RBNZ could cut interest rates at their next policy meeting in August, while a total of 45 basis points of easing have been priced in for all of 2024.
In contrast, investors expect no rate cut from the RBA until late 2025.
Reporting by Stella Qiu; Editing by Kim Coghill
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