NZD/USD stays deep in red below 0.7200 amid broad USD strength
- NZD/USD is falling for the third straight day on Monday.
- US Dollar Index builds on last week's gains, advances to 90.50 area.
- Wall Street's main indexes look to open sharply lower.
The NZD/USD pair finished the last two trading days of the previous week in the negative territory and extended its slide on Monday. As of writing, the pair was losing 0.72% on a daily basis at 0.7190.
DXY continues to push higher
The USD's market valuation remains the primary driver of NZD/USD's movements at the start of the week. The US Dollar Index (DXY), which rose decisively on the back of surging US Treasury bond yields in the second half of the last week, climbed to its highest level since December 23 at 90.51 on Monday.
In the absence of significant fundamental drivers and macroeconomic data releases, the greenback capitalizes on the risk-off flows. At the moment, the S&P 500 Futures are down 0.52% on the day, suggesting that Wall Street's main indexes are likely to open sharply lower. If the market mood remains sour in the second half of the day, the DXY could preserve its bullish momentum and force NZD/USD to remain on the back foot.
On Friday, the data from the US showed that Nonfarm Payrolls in December declined by 140,000. With this reading missing analysts' estimate for an increase of 71,000 risk-sensitive assets struggled to find demand.
Later in the session, Dallas Federal Reserve President Robert Kaplan will be delivering a speech. There won't be any macroeconomic data releases from New Zealand on Tuesday.
Technical levels to watch for