New Zealand Employment Change falls to -1% in 4Q from -0.4%

The New Zealand Dollar is selling off across the board. What appeared to be initially some surprisingly upbeat numbers through a reduction in the unemployment rate to 6.9% vs 7.1% expected in the fourth quarter, was simply a too good to be true, and speculators have been faced with aggressive selling after realizing that the low unemployment was caused by low participation levels, down to 67.2% v 68.5% exp. Additionally, employment growth stood at -1% QoQ, well below the 0.4% rise expected. The NZDUSD, after a brief spike to 0.8446, is now at session lows around 0.8340.