AUD/NZD races higher on Tuesday, clipping into 1.08 as hawkish RBA pumps Aussie

• The AUD/NZD sees its single best trading day since June, climbing nearly 0.9% on Tuesday.
• The RBA’s meeting minutes proved to be hawkish with the Aussie central bank seeing higher inflation risks.
• the Kiwi struggled after Monday’s CPI inflation miss.

The AUD/NZD hustled up the charts to close Tuesday trading just shy of the 1.0800 major handle, driving the pair decisively back into prices not seen since September, with the Aussie (AUD) catching a firm bid from a hawkish Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) while the Kiwi (NZD) struggles to find some pickup after missing Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation expectations on Monday.

RBA Minutes: Case to hold was stronger, upside risks to inflation were a significant concern

The RBA’s latest Meeting Minutes paved the way for the Australian reserve bank to hold interest rates higher for even longer than previously anticipated, driving the Aussie higher as markets firmly bid the AUD against its Antipodean neighbor.

Forex Today: Dollar slides despite upbeat US data

The Kiwi broadly missed the mark in late Monday’s CPI inflation reading, with the annualized figure into the third quarter flubbing the 5.9% forecast to print at 5.6% against the previous quarter’s 6%.

Next up on the economic calendar data docket will be Thursday’s Australian employment figures, followed by New Zealand trade balance figures late in the day.

The Australian Unemployment Rate for September is expected to print flat at 3.7%, while the Unemployment Change figure for the same period is expected to decline from 64.9K to 20K.

The Kiwi Trade Balance reading is slated for late Thursday at 21:45 GMT, when the NZ markets are heading into the early Friday Asia market session. NZ Trade Balance for the year into September last printed at $-15.54B.

AUD/NZD Technical Outlook

Tuesday’s bullish pump in the AUD/NZD sent the pair straight into the 50-day Simple Moving Average (SMA), with the pair hanging just south of the 1.0800 major handle. Overall bids still remain in bearish territory, but only slightly, with the 200-day SMA hanging just overhead at 1.0820.

Despite the day’s solid green bar for the Aussie, the pair remains firmly entrenched in the middle of 2023’s consolidation, with the AUD/NZD testing into price levels that have plagued the pair for most of the year.

AUD/NZD Daily Chart

AUD/NZD Technical Levels