New Zealand retail sales slammed lower in December

<p>Data for purchases made in New Zealand on debit, credit and store cards. Card spending data covers around 68% of core retail sales in NZ. Its used as the main retail sales indicator for the country.</p><p>NZD/USD is basically unchanged on the data, circa 0.6138. </p><p>The kiwi $ dropped overnight in line with the stronger US dollar. It all began yesterday in Asia as the you-know-what hit the fan in geopolitics:</p><ul><li><a href="https://www.forexlive.com/news/forexlive-asia-pacific-fx-news-wrap-middle-east-escalation-and-a-surging-us-dollar-20240116/" target="_blank" rel="follow" data-article-link="true">ForexLive Asia-Pacific FX news wrap: Middle East escalation and a surging US dollar</a></li></ul><p>It was a bit weird yesterday. While the Middle East was blowing up most news outlets were focused on some clown convention in Iowa, of all places. At least if you tuned in to ForexLive you got the info that mattered to markets. </p>

This article was written by Eamonn Sheridan at www.forexlive.com.