New Zealand Retail Sales fall in 3rd qtr. US Dollar gains in fx trade for 3rd day. | CountingPips Forex Blog

November 12, 2008 - Forex Economic News

New Zealand Retail Sales fall in 3rd qtr. US Dollar gains in fx trade for 3rd day.

New Zealand Retail Sales fell in the third quarter according to the monthly report released by Statistics New Zealand today. The seasonally adjusted total volume of retail sales fell by 0.9 percent or by NZ$129.0 million in the July to Septeber quarter following a decline of 1.4 percent in the second quarter. Retail sales have now fallen for the third straight quarter USD gains in Forex Trading according to the report. Market forecasts were expecting a 1.2 percent fall for the third quarter.

In the month September, retail sales showed a 0.1 percent gain while core retail sales, excluding auto sales, showed a 0.5 percent decline. Forecasts for September sales were expecting a 0.4 percent increase and a 0.4 percent increase in core sales.

Contributing to the quarterly retail sales numbers was an decrease in motor vehicle retailing which fell by 3.1 percent in the third quarter while supermarket and grocery stores also saw a decline of 1.9 percent. Positive contributions to the sales data were increases in appliance retailing which rose by 6.1 percent and department stores which increased by 3.8 percent.

US Dollar gains against most major currencies for third day in a row.

The U.S. dollar advanced verses most of the major currencies for a third straight day as US stocks fell and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson announced changes to the U.S. rescue package. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell for a third day in a row and shed more than 400 points while the NASDAQ also dropped for a third day shedding over 80 points. Treasury Secretary Paulson announced that the $700 billion rescue package would no longer include buying mortgage-related securities from banks as he feels that aspect of the plan would take too much time. Instead, the rescue package will continue to be utilized by buying direct equity into banks and encouraging those banks to resume normal lending practices.

The dollar received strong support today and advanced against the euro, pound, Canadian dollar, Australian dollar and New Zealand dollar while falling against the Japanese yen. The dollar was virtually unchanged verses the Swiss franc at time of writing.

The EUR/USD has fallen today from its 1.2573 opening(00:00 GMT) to trading at 1.2504 at the end of the U.S. trading session at 4:57pm ET. The GBP/USD, meanwhile, has fallen today by over 400 pips from its 1.5434 opening exchange rate to trading at 1.4956 later today.

The dollar has declined verses the Japanese yen for a third straight day as the USD/JPY is trading at 95.05 after opening at approximately 97.69. The USD/CAD advanced over the 1.2300 threshold today and trading at the exchange rate of 1.2385. The USD/CAD has gained over 300 pips from its 1.2031 opening.

The dollar has gained against the Australian dollar and New Zealand dollar as the AUD/USD trades at 0.6585 and the NZD/USD trades at 0.5751 today as both the aussie and kiwi are falling for the third straight day against the greenback.

GBP/USD Chart - The British Pound falls against the US dollar today in forex trading for a third straight day(Daily Chart).

Today's Forex Chart

tags: New Zealand, retail sales, us economy, usd, forex market

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