KEY POINTS:
The New Zealand dollar hit two-week highs against the greenback, yen and euro overnight, while trading around seven-week lows against its Australian counterpart.
The kiwi reached US77.39c and 0.5363 euro around 9pm, before retreating to US76.77c and 0.5322 euro by 8am today. Shortly after midnight it also topped 88.50 yen, then eased to 87.96 yen by the market's local opening.
Against the aussie, the kiwi traded between about A83.20c and A83.60c. By 8am it was in the middle of that range at A83.41c. The trade weighted index was 71.12c at 8am from 71.32c at 5pm yesterday.
Overnight, the greenback fell to record lows against the euro and a basket of major currencies for the second consecutive session as dealers bet the Federal Reserve will cut US interest rates this week and signal more cuts to come.
Overall sentiment remained bearish on the US dollar, with many analysts convinced that more rate cuts are needed to avert further deterioration in the housing sector and prevent a recession in the US economy.
That contrasts with somewhat stable conditions in other economies, particularly commodity exporters, whose currencies have been surging lately.
The high-yielding Australian dollar vaulted as high as US92.72c during the night, the highest since 1984.
The ANZ bank said the kiwi was likely to benefit from higher commodity prices, but was more likely to be pulled higher by a stronger Australian dollar.
Reuters currency rates
8am today 5pm yesterday
NZ dlr/US dlr US76.77c US77.05c
NZ dlr/Aust dlr A83.41c A83.45c
NZ dlr/euro 0.5322 0.5347
NZ dlr/yen 87.96 87.96
NZ dlr/stg 37.24p 37.50p
NZ TWI 71.12 71.32
Australian dollar US92.07c US92.35c
Euro/US dollar 1.4424 1.4411
US dollar/yen 114.57 114.17
- NZPA
