NZD/USD moves sideways below 0.6100 following Fed and RBNZ rate cuts

• Fed launched QE, lowered its policy rate by 100 basis points.
• RBNZ cut its policy rate to 0.25% from 1% on Monday.
• NZD/USD struggles to find direction after fluctuating wildly in Asian session.

The NZD/USD pair started the week with a bearish gap and dropped below the 0.6000 handle for the first time since Mary 2019. However, the pair rose sharply and added more than 150 pips following the Federal Reserve's 100 basis points rate cut before erasing its gains on the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) 75 basis points rate cut.

Further policy measures from major central banks

After fluctuating in a wide channel during the Asian session, the pair seems to have gone into a consolidation phase and was last seen trading at 0.6065, adding 0.12% on a daily basis.

Commenting on the RBNZ's emergency cut, "the RBNZ opined that ‘the New Zealand dollar exchange rate has also depreciated against our trading partners acting as a partial buffer for export earnings’. That’s code for ‘don’t expect us to stand in the way of NZD weakness’,” said analysts at ANZ research. “We expect the NZD to be under mild downward pressure as opposed to collapsing.”

In the second half of the day, investors will remain focused on Wall Street's reaction to the latest developments. The poor performance of European stocks and the sharp drop in the 10-year US T-bond yield on Monday suggest that panic-selling will continue to dominate the financial markets.

Although the greenback seems to be having a difficult time finding demand, flight-to-safety could force the risk-sensitive NZD to face further selling pressure and weigh on the pair.

Technical levels to watch for