KEY POINTS:
The New Zealand dollar firmed today on the coat-tails of its Australian counterpart after better than expected employment figures were released across the Tasman.
At 5pm today the kiwi was buying US79.97c, compared with US79.52c at the same time yesterday, and trading in a US80.15c-US79.65c range today.
Against the euro, the NZ dollar was at 0.5046 at 5pm - down slightly from 0.5064 yesterday. The kiwi also fell to 80.72 yen from 81.36.
On the trade-weighted index the kiwi also eased back narrowly to 70.86 from 70.89.
Westpac market strategist Michael Gordon said the kiwi had a boost after the Australian employment numbers, which were slightly stronger than expected.
"That saw the kiwi up through US80c to a high of 80.15, but it couldn't really push on from there. If it broke through 80.30 it's more likely to see further buying as short sellers get taken out," he told NZPA.
"It had a couple of goes at that level over the last two days and hasn't made any progress."
Mr Gordon said the Australasian currencies had been relatively subdued over the past 24 hours, apart from the aussie's bounce on the job numbers, with more focus euro and yen against the US dollar.
"But no one has a high degree of conviction of where the next trend is going to be. Credit markets are the key focus for everyone. They've calmed down a little since the end of the March quarter but there's still a steady flow of worrying news coming out so it's not really helping investor confidence at the moment."
- REUTERS reported from Tokyo that the dollar fell over one yen from the day's highs today, dogged by ongoing concerns about the outlook for the US economy.
The dollar has been pressured by aggressive rate cuts by the Federal Reserve, which is expected to further lower interest rates from the current 2.25 per cent at its April 29-30 policy meeting, eroding the dollar's yield appeal.
Reuters currency rates:
5pm today 5pm yesterday
NZ dlr/US dlr US79.97c US79.52c
NZ dlr/Aust dlr A85.71c A85.59c
NZ dlr/euro 0.5046 0.5064
NZ dlr/yen 80.72 81.36
NZ dlr/stg 40.42p 40.45p
NZ TWI 70.86 70.89
Australian dollar US93.30c US93.00c
Euro/US dollar 1.5847 1.5703
US dollar/yen 100.89 102.32
- NZPA
- NZPA
