KEY POINTS:
The New Zealand dollar was firm but traded within a narrow range, reflecting a softer greenback after weak US jobs data.
The Kiwi dollar closed at US78.82c, near opening levels but well up on Friday's close of US78.23c.
"The Kiwi's just been marking time ahead of tomorrow's NZIER survey [of business opinion], I think," Westpac analyst Michael Gordon said.
The kiwi was also keeping pace with the Australian dollar which was curbed by a larger than forecast Australian trade deficit, and by moderately strong US dollar buying, mostly in the yen.
The kiwi was slightly lower against the Aussie, closing at A85.64c from A85.82c on Friday and A87.70c a week ago.
Mr Gordon said both currencies were sagging under a "noticeable slowing in momentum but it has hit the New Zealand dollar slightly more with the business and consumer confidence surveys, in particular".
"Everyone expects the upcoming housing numbers to be very weak as well."
On other crosses, the Kiwi improved to 80.77 yen (80.34 yen on Friday) and to 0.5031 euro (0.4998 euro). The trade weighted index rose to 70.20 from 70.01.
Offshore the US dollar rose against the yen as traders focused allocating funds as the new business year got underway.
The greenback rose over 1 yen from the day's lows and rose as high as 102.68 yen , closing here at 102.47 yen.
Reuters currency rates:
NZ dlr/US dlr US78.82c US78.23c
NZ dlr/Aust dlr A85.64c A85.82c
NZ dlr/euro 0.5031 0.4998
NZ dlr/yen 80.77 80.34
NZ dlr/stg 39.62p 39.24p
NZ TWI 70.20 70.01
Australian dollar US92.04c US91.20c
Euro/US dollar 1.5667 1.5656
US dollar/yen 102.47 102.65
- NZPA
