NZ dollar recovering after yesterday's fall

Photo / Supplied.

The New Zealand dollar continues to recover this morning after falling sharply yesterday when higher than expected unemployment data for the June quarter were released.

The NZ dollar was at US72.87c at 8am from US72.95c at 5pm yesterday, following a steep drop from US73.57c to US 72.75c, and going as low as US72.43c after the release of the Household Labour Force Survey. But around 8.30am, the kiwi gained strength reaching US73.07c.

Investors were scratching their heads but said the 6.8 per cent unemployment rate in the June quarter is consistent with a slow recovery and increased the chance that the Reserve Bank will pause in its next interest rate review or the one after that.

In the ANZ morning report, it said the dollar had a marginal recovery overnight, but yesterday's release will be topped tonight by the US July unemployment rate.

"Yesterday's employment release has uncorked plenty of questions around the volatility of the series and left the NZ dollar reasonably flat. It may take tonight's US employment release to restore some fizz back into the NZ dollar and today's trading should be reasonably muted," it said.

Against the Australian dollar, the kiwi was at A79.57c at 8am from A79.68c at 5pm yesterday, recovering after hitting a three-month low yesterday below A79.40c.

It also fell against the euro and yen, sitting at 0.5522 euro this morning from 0.5544 yesterday, and 62.51 yen from 62.83.

The trade weighted index fell to 67.20 at 8am from 67.37 at 5pm yesterday.

- NZPA