Currency: Dollar retreats from three-week high

The New Zealand dollar retreated from a three-week high against the greenback today as nervousness about the state of US banks surfaced again.

The NZ dollar topped US58.60c briefly around 1.40am but by 5pm was down to US57.75c, still ahead of the US57.67c at 5pm yesterday.

The yen climbed against the Australian and New Zealand dollars and against the euro in Asia and US stock futures fell on a report that regulators have concluded Bank of America needs to raise US$34 ($59) billion in capital.

This prompted investors to once again shed riskier positions.

BNZ Capital currency strategist Danica Hampton had earlier said that from a fundamental perspective, the recent gains in NZD/USD cross looked unsustainable.

The NZ dollar fell to 56.65 yen from 57.43 at 8am and 56.98 yesterday but was little changed at 0.4352 euro.

Against the Australian dollar, the NZ dollar fell to A73.65c from A77.97c yesterday.

New Zealand's trade weighted index rose to 56.94 from 56.76 yesterday.

Currency rates:

5pm today 5pm yesterday

NZ dlr/US dlr US57.75c US57.67c

NZ dlr/Aust dlr A73.65c A77.97c

NZ dlr/euro 0.4352 0.4315

NZ dlr/yen 56.65 56.98

NZ dlr/stg 38.45p 38.48p

NZ TWI 56.94 56.76

Aust dlr/US dlr 73.62c 73.95c

Euro/US dlr 1.3264 1.3358

US dlr/yen 98.12 98.75

- NZPA