NZD/USD Surges Above 0.5950 on Risk-On Flows Ahead of US NFP

NZD/USD climbed above 0.5950 to a session high of 0.5970 on May 8, buoyed by risk-on sentiment from US affirmations of a US-Iran ceasefire easing safe-haven USD demand. The pair plunged 0.5% to 0.5868 on May 4 after RBNZ's Prasanna Gai dismissed reflexive rate hikes for Hormuz shocks, slashing OCR hike odds to 10% and 2-year yields 8bp. It then rallied over 1.5% to a two-month high of 0.5983 by May 7 on mixed Q1 jobs—unemployment at 5.3% (vs. 5.4% expected), 0.2% employment growth—RBNZ banking resilience, and de-escalation hopes, with a minor pullback before today's recovery.