KEY POINTS:
After dipping below US52c for the first time in six years on Friday morning, the New Zealand dollar lifted out of the hole over the weekend.
By 8am today the kiwi was buying US53.72c, up from US52.88c at 5pm on Friday.
The kiwi raced up around a cent in the two hours before 11am on Saturday as equities surged in the United States on unconfirmed reports that President-elect Barack Obama has chosen his point person to combat the worst US economic crisis in 80 years.
Reports in the late afternoon (local time) that Obama will nominate Timothy Geithner, president of the New York Federal Reserve, as his Treasury secretary triggered a rapid turn in markets that were wallowing after the week's heavy sell-off in equities.
ANZ bank said that while the NZ dollar had made a mild recovery, the market remained "incredibly hostile".
Despite the fact much of the negative news came out of the US, the greenback had tended to outperform other major currencies, ANZ said.
Intervention by the Reserve Bank of Australia was helping slow the decline in the Australian dollar, which would spill over to the NZ dollar.
The kiwi cross against the aussie kept trying to move lower as sellers around the A86c level ensured a solid cap, ANZ said.
By today's local open the NZ dollar was at A84.77c, from A85.65c at 5pm on Friday.
The kiwi was little changed against the euro, buying 0.4264 at 8am from 0.4248 at Friday's local close. It was up against the Japanese currency to 51.51 yen from 49.95. The trade weighted index was up to 55.11 at 8am from 54.63 at 5pm on Friday.
- NZPA
