APAC Morning Update - 29/03/21

The NZDUSD opens at 0.6986 and AUDUSD opens at 0.7628

The NZD and AUD rallied going into the weekend as more news was out about Biden’s infrastructure plan, with the recent 1.9 Trillion only the start. Phase 2 is to “Build Back Better” which involves a planned few more Trillion thrown at infrastructure. For now the market is caught between this, Covid - which seems to be taking off again, and the vaccine rollout. The more people that are vaccinated, the less relevant a 4th wave will be, but for now the market IS concerned, but it does have a habit of forgetting about Covid pretty quickly.

In slightly interesting news, a Hedge Fund - Archegos Capital was liquidated late last week, which meant their $80 Billion dollar position had to be chopped out pretty quickly. Someone hit the big red button and stocks like Discovery got hit hard, down from almost 80 to a low of 34 at the worst of it. It seems to be isolated to 5 or so shares, but it will get some people nervous. In case anyone needs a reminder that shares can halve pretty quickly, it may well get people in the profit taking kind of mood.

Global equity markets are mixed: Dow -0.7%, S&P 500 +1.7%, FTSE +1.0%, DAX +0.9%, CAC +0.6%, Nikkei +1.1%, Shanghai -0.1%.