NZ dollar drags itself back from month low vs greenback

Photo / Dean Purcell

The New Zealand dollar managed to drag itself back from its lowest level in a month against the greenback, amid light foreign exchange trading volumes due to the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States.

By 8am today the kiwi was buying US76.12c, having fallen to around US75.60c at mid-afternoon yesterday.

The kiwi also spiked to around 0.572 euros overnight, near 10-week highs it has pushed at several times in the past week as the euro zone debt crisis shows little signs of abating. The NZ dollar then fell away to be at 0.5695 euro by 8am.

BNZ markets strategist Mike Jones said that with the US celebrating Thanksgiving and Europe devoid of key data releases, markets were contained to tight ranges overnight. Only positioning and occasional official comment sparked marginal movement.

ANZ predicted another day of consolidation and reflection for the NZ dollar as it looked abroad for directional influences. Thanksgiving would ensure those were few and far between.

The NZ dollar spent the night in a tight range against the Australian dollar between A77.35c and A77.65c, having dropped briefly to a fortnight low below A77.20c yesterday afternoon.

The kiwi rose to 63.65 yen at 8am from 63.26 at 5pm yesterday, while the trade weighted index was up to 68.68 from 68.48.

- NZPA