Yahoo Finance

Earlier in the Day:

It’s was a busier start to the day on the economic calendar this morning.  The Kiwi Dollar and the Japanese Yen were in action in the early part of the day.

Away from the economic calendar, there was no change, with the markets needing to continue monitoring COVID-19 numbers and chatter on the COVID-19 stimulus package.

For the Kiwi Dollar

2^nd quarter wholesale inflation figures were in focus early on. Quarter-on-quarter, the Producer Input Price Index fell by 1% in the 2^nd quarter, following a 0.3% decline in the 1^st quarter.

According to NZ Stats,

• A slump in demand and prices for fuel weighed, as fewer people traveled by air and by road due to COVID-19 lockdown measures.

• Dairy product manufacturers paid less for raw milk, while output prices received by dairy product manufacturers for many goods increased.

• Meat processing companies also paid farmers less, while prices received by the forestry and logging sector increased.

The Kiwi Dollar moved from $0.66023 to $0.66042 upon release of the data. At the time of writing, the Kiwi Dollar was up by 0.06% to $0.6605.

For the Japanese Yen

In July, Japan’s trade balance increased from a ¥269.3bn deficit to an ¥11.6bn surplus. Economists had forecast a ¥77.6bn deficit.

According to figures released by the  Ministry of Finance,

• Exports fell by 19.2%, following a 26.2% decline in June.

  • While exports to Asia fell by 8.2%, exports to China increased by 8.2%.

  • Exports to Australia and New Zealand slid by 27.1% and by 48.8% respectively.

  • Exports to the U.S tumbled by 19.5%.

  • To Europe, exports slid by 32.5%, with exports to Germany falling by 27.5%.

• Imports declined by 22.3%, following a 14.4% fall in June.

  • From the U.S, imports fell by 22.5%, and by 30.2% from Australia.

  • Imports from China declined by 9.8%.

In June, core machinery orders slid by 7.6%, month-on-month, following on from a 1.7% rise in May. Year-on-year, orders were down by 22.5%. In May, orders had been down by 16.3%. Economists had forecast a monthly rise of 2% and a year-on-year decline of 17.6%.

The Japanese Yen moved from ¥105.265 to ¥105.138 upon release of the figures. At the time of writing, the Japanese Yen was down by 0.14% ¥105.56 against the U.S Dollar.

Elsewhere

At the time of writing, the Aussie Dollar was down by 0.07% to $0.7238.

The Day Ahead:

For the EUR

It’s a relatively quiet day ahead on the economic calendar. Key stats include July’s finalized inflation figures for the Eurozone.

There’s unlikely to be too much influence from the numbers, however. The market focus will remain on the U.S and China, COVID-19, and the U.S stimulus package.