Dollar falls to lowest level in a month

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The New Zealand dollar fell to its lowest level in a month after breaking through a support level when the Australian dollar came under pressure.

The market remained plagued by risk aversion and some analysts were calling the NZ dollar lower.

The NZ dollar was at US75.79c at 5pm, down from US76.22c at 8am and US76.21c at 5pm yesterday.

Euro zone concerns continue to dominant the market, while a larger-than-expected dip in new claims for unemployment benefits in the United States raised hopes the US labour market may have turned a corner.

The NZ dollar was stuck in a range between US75.80c and US76.40c until about lunch time today, said Imre Speizer, currency strategist at Westpac. It then broke below US75.80c and got as low as US75.60c.

"The aussie capital expenditure report was weak in the detail and aussie had a fall on that. We went partially with that," said Mr Speizer.

"Overall, risk aversion remains present in the market but there was no real hard news," he said. He is calling the NZ dollar lower to US74c.

The NZ dollar had been weak against the Australian dollar but bounded higher against it from around A77.17c in afternoon trading to be A77.47c at 5pm, which was down from A77.87c at 5pm yesterday.

The US Thanksgiving holiday was likely to see light trading that should help keep the kiwi within recent ranges.

Worries that Ireland's fiscal crisis could spread to other euro-zone countries continues to be a theme in markets.

The NZ dollar eased to 0.5685 euro at 5pm from 0.5711 euro at 8am from 0.5691 at 5pm yesterday. It was at 63.26 yen from 63.45. The trade weighted index was at 68.48 at 5pm, down from 68.74 at the same time yesterday.

- NZPA