Kiwi dollar quiet

The New Zealand dollar consolidated today ahead of the release of US non-farm payroll data in the United States.

The NZ dollar rose above US74c yesterday and the Australian dollar rose above US92.60c when strong Australian retail sales data suggested there will be more interest rate rises in Australia.

The NZ dollar eased on Thursday night and was at US73.11c at 5pm today, little change from US73.23c at 8am and US73.78c at 5pm yesterday.

The Australian dollar eased to US91.53c by 5pm and the NZ dollar eased to A79.85c at 5pm from A80.00c yesterday.

BNZ currency strategist Danica Hampton said the US non farm payroll report was expected to reveal flat jobs growth in the US in December.

The NZ dollar held inside and expected range from US73 to US73.80c today ahead of that data.

The US dollar dipped today after Japanese Finance Minister Naoto Kan said markets should decide exchange rates. It had earlier gained after European economic data suggested a weak, slow recovery and the Japanese finance minister called for a weaker yen.

The NZ dollar reached a 10-week high against the Japanese currency around 68.56 yen early yesterday afternoon, and was 68.18 yen at 5pm.

After peaking at a 21-month high against the European currency, around 0.5140 euro, early yesterday afternoon the NZ dollar was down to 0.5107 euro by 5pm today.

The trade weighted index was down to 66.70 at 5pm from 66.96 yesterday.

- NZPA