Kiwi jumps against greenback, plunges against the pound

The kiwi was trading 66.15 US cents at 5pm. Photo / File

The New Zealand dollar jumped against the US dollar on reports the US and China have declared a trade war truce but plummeted against the British pound as the Conservative Party appeared headed for a landslide election victory.

The kiwi was trading 66.15 US cents at 5pm from 65.80 cents this morning and 65.61 cents last Friday in New York. It was at 49.07 British pence from 50.28 pence at 8am.

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"We have at least postponed two of the bigger risks we've spent most of 2019 worrying about," said Robert Rennie, chief currency strategist at Westpac in Sydney.

While the US and China appear to have reached a trade deal, "I always think that the devil's in the detail. Some of the Chinese press are suggesting not all of the details are yet fully agreed," Rennie said.

"We've been in this situation before," he said, pointing to December last year when US President Donald Trump and China's President Xi Jinping met in Argentina and the world thought they'd reached a deal but "it all fell over when the final details couldn't be agreed."

For the US to remove tariffs set to commence on December 15 and to remove some existing tariffs, it will want something substantial in return – the talk is China will spend US$50 billion ($75.5b) buying US farm products.

"There's a difference between having those targets and actually meeting those targets," Rennie said.

As for Brexit, it appears that British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will be able to "get Brexit" done and have Britain leave the European Union in January.

But all that will mean is that Britain will enter a transition period during which it will have to reach agreements with the EU on each aspect of future relations between Britain and the EU.

"Boris Johnson's saying he will finish those negotiations by the end of 2020. I would say that's optimistic with a very large capital O," Rennie said.

"The risk of hard Brexit at the end of 2020 could be something we have to look forward to."

The New Zealand dollar was at 95.45 Australian cents from 95.47, at 59.17 euro cents from 59.21, at 72.50 yen from 71.90 yen and at 4.6106 Chinese yuan from 4.5941.

Rennie said the yen had been viewed as a relative safe-haven so the good news has led to money flowing out of Japan. The trade-weighted index was at 72.49 from 72.40.

The two-year swap rate climbed to a bid price of 1.2278 per cent from 1.1836 yesterday while 10-year swaps rose to 1.7575 per cent, its highest level since July, from 1.6225 per cent.