NZD/USD rises following Fed decision

• NZD/USD rose above 0.6200 and jumped to positive territory.
• Fed hiked rates by 0.25% as expected to 5.25-5.50%.
• Powell opened the door to “not hike rates” in September.

The NZD/USD cleared daily losses and jumped to positive territory towards the 0.6220 area.

The Federal Reserve (Fed) hiked rates by 25 basis points (bps) to the 5.25-5.50% target. In the presser, Jerome Powell didn’t commit to further hikes noting that ongoing decisions will depend fully on incoming data.

Regarding his economic assessment, he noted that economic activity remains robust, the labour tight, and inflation elevated. In addition, he stated that the Fed expect some “softening” of the labour market and some below-the-trend growth.

During the presser, the US Treasury yields fell sharply, which applied pressure on the USD. The 2-year yield fell to 4.86%, while the 5 and 10-year rates fell to 4.10% and 3.86%, all three with more than 0.50% losses.

NZD/USD Levels to watch

 According to the daily chart, the outlook is neutral to bearish. The Relative Strength Index (RSI) Index is in positive territory, slightly above the middle line. At the same time, the Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) index prints soft red bars suggesting that the bears are holding their ground. On the bigger picture, the pair holds above the 20,100 and 200-day Simple Moving Averages (SMA), which suggests that the buyers are in command.

Support levels:0.6223 (20-day SMA), 0.62139 (100-day SMA), 0.61978 (200-day SMA).
Resistance levels: 0.6240, 0.6300,0.6350
 

NZD/USD Daily chart