NZDJPY may be entering a volatile week. The Reserve Bank of New Zealand is scheduled to announce the next monetary policy decision on Wednesday at 1:00 am GMT. There is a lot of uncertainty around this announcement. Money markets price in around 40 basis points of tightening and majority of economists polled by Bloomberg see 50 bp rate hike as the base case scenario. However, calls for a lower hike or even a pause have been mounting recently as New Zealand is facing floods and damage from a cyclone. A decision to pause rate hikes to wait and see what damage to the economy weather has done, would be surprising and would likely trigger a pullback on NZD market.
When it comes to the JPY-side, an event to watch this week is the confirmation hearing of Kazuo Ueda in the lower house of the Japanese parliament scheduled for Friday, February 24. Ueda has been nominated to succeed Kuroda as Bank of Japan head and this week's confirmation hearing will be his first appearance since nomination. Any suggestions that the Bank of Japan may exit or roll down highly expansionary policy under his watch could trigger moves on the JPY market.
Start investing today or test a free demo
Open real account TRY DEMO Download mobile app Download mobile appTaking a look at NZDJPY chart at D1 interval, we can see that the pair has been largely trading sideways as of late. The pair failed to break above the midpoint of the trading range in the 84.50 zone. Apart from previous price reactions, this zone is also marked with a 200-session moving average. Moves on the pair has been recently confined to the inner 82.50-84.50 range and high-volatility events scheduled for this week, especially RBNZ decision, could lead to a breakout, direction of which may determine the direction of the next big move.
Source: xStation5
