The New Zealand and the Canadian dollars strengthened against their major counterparts in the Asian session on Wednesday, as investor sentiment bolstered after data showed that the manufacturing sector in China continued to expand in May, and at a steady pace.
Data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed that the manufacturing sector in China continued to expand in May, and at a steady pace, with a manufacturing PMI score of 51.2. That's unchanged from the April reading, surpassing expectations for 51.0.
The bureau also said its non-manufacturing PMI came in with a score of 54.5, up from 54.0 in the previous month.
In other economic news, data from ANZ Bank showed that the business confidence in New Zealand improved in May, with an index score of 14.9. That's up from 11.0 in April.
In the Asian trading, the NZ dollar rose to nearly a 4-month high of 1.0489 against the Australian dollar and nearly a 3-month high of 0.7118 against the U.S. dollar, from yesterday's closing quotes of 1.0517 and 0.7096, respectively. If the kiwi extends its uptrend, it is likely to find resistance around 1.03 against the aussie and 0.72 against the greenback.
Against the euro and the yen, the kiwi advanced to near 3-week highs of 1.5699 and 78.96 from yesterday's closing quotes of 1.5759 and 78.64, respectively. The kiwi may test resistance near 1.53 against the euro and 81.00 against the yen.
The Canadian dollar rose to a 2-day high of 1.3449 against the U.S. dollar, from yesterday's closing value of 1.3458. The loonie may test resistance around 1.32 region.
Against the yen, the euro and the Australian dollar, the loonie advanced to 82.62, 1.5018 and 1.0018 from yesterday's closing quotes of 82.33, 1.5055 and 1.0047, respectively. If the loonie extends its uptrend, it is likely to find resistance around 84.00 against the yen, 1.47 against the euro and 0.99 against the aussie.
Looking ahead, the German unemployment rate for May, Swiss Credit Suisse economic expecteation index for May, U.K. mortgage approvals data for April and Eurozone CPI data for May, and unemployment rate for April are due to be released later in the day.
At 3:20 am ET, European Central Bank Executive Board Member Benoit Coeure gives a speech at a conference on "A Glimpse into Europe's Financial Landscape - Greece: A Comeback to the Financial Markets?", in Frankfurt.
In the New York session, Canada GDP data for March, U.S. pending home sales data for April, and U.S. Chicago PMI for May are slated for release.
At 8:00 am ET, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Robert Kaplan is expected to speak at the Council of Foreign Relations, in New York.
At 8:30 am ET, European Central Bank Executive Board Member Sabine Lautenschlager gives a speech at the 73. Bankenwirtschaftliche Tagung (BWT) "Herausforderungen annehmen - Zukunft gestalten" in Germany.
At 2:00 pm ET, U.S. Federal Reserve is set to publish its Beige book report.
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Business News
May 08, 2026 15:50 ET Manufacturing and services sector survey results and labor market data from main economies were the highlight on the economics news front this week. Factory orders and jobs report dominated the news flow in the U.S. Similarly, industrial production data from German garnered attention in Europe. In Asia, purchasing managers’ survey results from China and the central bank decision from Australia were in focus.