NZ dollar steady in US 74c range

The New Zealand dollar settled into a fairly narrow range in quiet trading today.

By 5pm it was at US74.34c from US74.49c at 8am and US74.69c at 5pm yesterday. It has retreated from US75.20c, a three week high, yesterday due to strength in the US dollar.

"We are just in a range waiting for something to give us a bit of direction," BNZ Capital strategist Mike Jones.

The NZ dollar rose to the higher end of today's range when the US sharemarket closed with a flourish.

In Australia, there was news that wage pressures subsided to their lowest pace in five years.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics' wage price index grew by just 0.7 per cent on a seasonally-adjusted basis in the September quarter. The outcome was in line with market economists' forecasts.

With no local economic data of note due for the rest of the week the focus is expected to continue to be on offshore trends.

The NZ dollar edged up to a three-week high against the European currency to 0.5017 euro early today and by 5pm was 0.4998 from 0.4995 yesterday.

Against the Australian dollar the local currency reached a fortnight high of A80.37c overnight and was A80.15c at 5pm from A80.01c yesterday.

The NZ dollar was also at 66.30 yen, down slightly from the local close of 66.51 yen yesterday. The trade weighted index was 66.25 from 66.37 yesterday.

- NZPA