KEY POINTS:
The New Zealand dollar managed to hold firm today after rebounding from lows on Wednesday.
The trend is down and the NZ dollar's rebound is being put down to sellers taking profits and a squeeze on traders holding so-called short positions.
By 5pm today the NZ dollar was buying US52.90c, little changed from the same time yesterday, and up from US52.48c at 8am. It is a respectable distance from the US51.65c it fell to on Wednesday.
"This move up since yesterday was really just a correction to the broader down move," said Imre Speizer, senior market strategist at Westpac.
Retail sales data on Wednesday was better than expected but electronic card transactions data for December released today suggested retailing is experiencing tough times.
ANZ said tests by the NZ dollar below US52c had been quickly thwarted as buyers of the NZ dollar took advantage of multi-year lows.
Mr Speizer said US52c was a key technical level and the next target was US50c.
The yen rose to a 13-year high against the US dollar and seven-year high against the euro today in technical trading.
The NZ dollar was not immune and plunged more than two yen in an hour early today to an eight-year low around 45.10 yen about 5am, but then rebounded to 46.99 by the local close.
Against the euro the kiwi hit a low around 0.4010 early today but then rebounded to be at 0.4060 around 5pm.
The kiwi was at A80.60c against the Australian dollar, down from A80.70c at 5pm yesterday, while the trade weighted index fell to 53.15 at 5pm from 53.32 yesterday.
Reuters currency rates:
5pm today 5pm yesterday
NZ dlr/US dlr US52.90c US52.93c
NZ dlr/Aust dlr A80.60c A80.70c
NZ dlr/euro 0.4060 0.4075
NZ dlr/yen 46.99 47.60
NZ dlr/stg 37.95p 37.85p
NZ TWI 53.15 53.32
Aust dlr/US dlr US65.60c US65.56c
Euro/US dlr 1.3016 1.2977
US dlr/yen 88.96 89.97
- NZPA
