KEY POINTS:
Buyers snapped up the New Zealand dollar after it hit a five-week low against the greenback early in the Easter break.
Early on Friday the kiwi dropped down around US78.70c, then staged a mild recovery before slipping back to the US78.80c level by yesterday afternoon.
It then climbed overnight on rising US equities to be buying US79.72c by 8am today.
In contrast to its dip against the greenback, the kiwi touched a six-week high against the Australian dollar at the start of the holiday, getting close to A88.15c late on Thursday.
It has bounced around since then and by the local market open was at A88.02c.
ANZ bank today said that a corrective move lower in gold and other commodity prices had taken plenty of shine off the aussie.
Further consolidation in the Australasian currencies was expected after the Easter dip against the US dollar brought forth plenty of buyers, ANZ said.
The kiwi was also buying 0.5171 euro at 8am, up from 0.5139 at 5pm on Thursday, and 80.37 yen from 79.52. The trade weighted index was 71.53 at 8am from 71.36.
The greenback rallied across the board overnight on better-than-expected US existing home sales data and JP Morgan's higher offer for shares in investment bank Bear Stearns, which boosted Wall Street stocks.
The US currency rose for a fourth consecutive session in holiday-thinned trading and followed a series of aggressive measures undertaken by the Federal Reserve last week aimed at relieving the market's liquidity pressure.
Data showed US existing home sales rose 2.9 percent last month, although the 8.2 percent decline in median home prices to $US195,000 ($NZ246,088) was the sharpest drop since 1968.
- NZPA
