NZD/USD: 5 Reasons For A Potential Fall

 | Nov 23, 2014 01:52AM ET

Throughout the month of November, the NZD has been able to do something that very few other currencies around the world have been able to do, gain value against the USD/NZD.  The outright love of everything USD isn’t something that is unfamiliar to traders out there as US data has been performing admirably and the Federal Reserve has set themselves up for future rate hikes by eliminating the last vestiges of Quantitative Easing.  If fact, it is rather surprising to me that the NZD has had such fortune, so here are some reasons outside of simple USD strength that it might not continue.

Milk Prices and Other Fundamental Factors

It has been stated that New Zealand is the Saudi Arabia of milk, with approximately one third of international dairy trade going through the nation each year.  Therefore the price of the commodity is overwhelmingly significant to the health of the nation.  In order to maintain strength in the economy, milk prices need to rise, but that hasn’t been the case over the last few months as you can see from the chart (Figure 1) below.  Fundamentally speaking, if this trend of falling prices continues, the NZD may have nowhere to go but down.

h3 Figure 1:/h3