Rates as of 0500 GMT

Market Recap

Markets were generally quiet and cautious ahead of todays US consumer price index CPI, which is now The Big Indicator To Watch more so than even the fabled US nonfarm payrolls.

The big mover of the day was AUDNZD, which had a 1.38standarddeviation move lower. The fall in AUD was attributed to Tuesdays Westpac consumer confidence, which fell another 3 monthonmonth. Australian consumer confidence has fallen for 9 months in a row now.

On the other hand, the National Australia Bank NAB business sentiment indices rose, with business confidence returning to around its longterm average. Why did one affect the currency so much more than the other? Im not sure.

Against that, there was no particular news out for the kiwi. In fact, AUD bond yields moved up more today than NZ bond yields did, which one might normally have thought would support AUD. My assumption would be that people who wanted to sell AUD did it vs NZD, pushing NZD higher. I dont think theres any more significance to the move than that.

In any case, the moves are so small that usually I wouldnt even write about them if there were anything else to write about, but theres not today.

Speaking of small moves, GBP fell sharply but later recovered much of the decline on reports that the government is making plans for organized blackouts for industry and possibly even households in January when cold weather may combine with gas shortages. Under the governments latest…