Dollar headed for 0.8% weekly fall against greenback

The kiwi traded at 70.23 US cents at 5pm.

The New Zealand dollar is headed for a 0.8 per cent weekly fall against the greenback and remains under pressure ahead of the US jobs data due later in the global trading day.

The kiwi traded at 70.23 US cents at 5pm from 70.40 US cents as at 8am in Wellington from 70.17 cents late yesterday. It traded at 70.83 cents last Friday in New York. The trade-weighted index was at 73.21 from 73.27, below the Reserve Bank's assumed level of 75 in the last set of forecasts it published.

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The kiwi has been weighed by recent US dollar strength but pared some of those losses after it touched fresh four-month lows overnight.

However, while it opened higher, it waned over the day after it failed to break through resistance ahead of the US nonfarm payrolls data, due overnight NZT. The data is expected to show US unemployment fell to 4 per cent from 4.1 per cent while the world's biggest economy added 188,000 workers in April.

The kiwi "is stronger compared to yesterday but the in last hour or so we have peeled off a bit from that resistance level of around 70.50 US cents. We couldn't break through that," said ANZ Bank senior macro-strategist Phil Borkin.

Across the Tasman, the Reserve Bank's statement on monetary policy tweaked inflation a bit but "ultimately the message from them was no different," so the kiwi was little changed against the Australian dollar. It traded at 93.01 Australian cents 93.25 cents yesterday.

The next event for the kiwi will be next week's monetary policy review and statement, the first under new governor and "if it wasn't for Adrian Orr, I think it would be quite a boring statement," said Borkin.

All 15 economists in a Bloomberg survey expect the official cash rate to be kept at a record low 1.75 per cent in next week's monetary policy statement, but will be reading the MPS for any changes at the margin and scrutinising Orr's views and plans.

However, given that Orr is relatively unknown, the "market will jump on everything he says" and there could be some volatility, said Borkin.

The MPS will also be the first since the signing of a new Policy Targets Agreement with the government, which includes reference to considering employment levels as well as price stability and formalises decisions by committee rather than the governor alone.

The kiwi fell to 4.4569 yuan from 4.4653 yuan and to 51.17 British pence from 51.60 pence. It was at 76.61 yen from 76.93 yen and 58.59 euro cents from 58.50 cents.

New Zealand's two-year swap rate was unchanged at 2.27 per cent and 10-year swaps fell 2 basis points to 3.20 per cent.