KEY POINTS:
The New Zealand dollar was little changed against the US dollar today and posted a modest gain against the Australian dollar.
By 5pm today the kiwi was buying US74.37c from the US74.31c at 8am and US74.28c at 4.30pm on Friday.
Bank of New Zealand currency strategist Danica Hampton said that early in the overnight Friday session broad-based US dollar weakness had seen the kiwi dragged up to nearly US74.70c.
But a rebound in the greenback followed better than expected US data. Firming US equities also helped, she said.
The New Zealand market today was not too ruffled by trade data. The headline number was better than expected but economists still saw a weak export performance in underlying data.
"Tomorrow we get the data show on the road with June's building consents," said BNZ Markets.
Against the aussie, the NZ dollar was up to A77.84c from A77.74c at 8am and from A77.56c on Friday afternoon, while against the yen the kiwi was at 80.16 from 79.37.
The NZ dollar was barely changed against the euro at 0.4732 from 0.4733, with the trade weighted index 66.39 at 5pm from 66.22 on Friday.
Ms Hampton said concerns about a slowing New Zealand economy and looming interest rate cuts should continue to take a toll on the NZ dollar.
Reuters currency rates:
NZ dlr/US dlr US74.37c US74.28c
NZ dlr/Aust dlr A77.84c A77.56c
NZ dlr/euro 0.4732 0.4733
NZ dlr/yen 80.16 79.37
NZ dlr/stg 37.38p 37.41p
NZ TWI 66.39 66.22
Australian dollar US95.56c US95.77c
Euro/US dollar 1.5719 1.5698
US dollar/yen 107.80 106.82
- NZPA
