KEY POINTS:
The New Zealand dollar steadied today, following equity markets higher after a fall in oil prices provided a boost in the United States.
By 5pm, the kiwi was at US77.77c, from US78.06c late yesterday afternoon, having lost around a third of a US cent overnight as concerns eased about the American economy.
"The kiwi's been pretty stable (today), it's been a range of US77.60c to US77.85c," said Westpac currency strategist Michael Gordon.
The kiwi received a small boost as the Australian dollar gained from a 0.5 per cent rise in Australian retail sales in March.
The kiwi was likely to continue underperforming in general, although it would benefit from the inability of the US dollar to make much mileage out of a changed US Federal Reserve's stance, Mr Gordon said.
This week the Fed cut interest rates again, by 25 points to 2 per cent, and while it did not discount another reduction, increasingly economists believed the central bank was winding down its rate-cutting campaign.
The markets are now awaiting the monthly US payrolls report later on Friday to see if the labour market is also doing better, which would cast more doubts on the prospect of another Fed rate cut.
That would boost the US dollar, which was steady near a two-month high against a basket of major currencies.
Against the Australian dollar, the kiwi was at A83.37c from A83.16c yesterday at 5pm, and was firmer against the euro, yen and sterling.
The Aussie was at US93.26c from US93.88c yesterday.
Currency rates:
NZ dlr/US dlr US77.77c US78.06c
NZ dlr/Aust dlr A83.37c A83.16c
NZ dlr/euro 0.5028 0.4994
NZ dlr/yen 81.37 80.97
NZ dlr/stg 39.38p 39.29p
NZ TWI 69.75 69.61
Australian dollar US93.26c US93.88c
Euro/US dollar 1.5466 1.5633
US dollar/yen 104.63 103.71
- NZPA
