NZ dollar rises after US jobs data stokes growth optimism

Photo / Dean Purcell

The New Zealand dollar rose to its highest level against the greenback since February 9 after better-than-expected payrolls data in the US saw increased demand for growth-linked currencies.

On Friday, data showed the world's biggest economy added 216,000 workers in March, beating market forecasts of 190,000 jobs.

The unemployment rate drop 0.1 per cent to a two-year low of 8.8 per cent, compared to expectations of no change. That saw investor appetite for higher yielding, or riskier assets rise, spurring demand for the New Zealand and Australian dollar.

The "risk-on" sentiment was further supported by comments from New York Federal Reserve President William Dudley that further strong data wouldn't see an early exit from the second round of asset purchases, or QE2.

The kiwi rose to 76.80 US cents from 76.07 cents in New York on Friday, and gained to 67.23 on the trade-weighted index of major trading partners' currencies from 66.72.

It rose to 73.86 Australian cents from 73.55 cents last week, and gained to 64.60 yen from 63.63 yen. It climbed to 53.93 euro cents from 53.72 cents on Friday, and rose to 47.63 pence from 47.33 pence previously.

"The kiwi remains upward, and momentum remains strong as it has since mid March," said Imre Speizer, market strategist at Westpac Banking Corp. "US payrolls was the big consensus and pushed risk up immediately."

The kiwi and Aussie currencies also saw increased demand on the back of the strength of commodity prices. Oil lead the charge, with ICE Brent futures climbing to US$ 119.10 a barrel from US$115.98 on Friday, but soft commodities continued their upward momentum.

The Thompson/Reuters Jefferies CRB Index, a broad measure of 19 commodities, rose 0.4 per cent to 360.89, having gained 1.7 per cent last week.

Speizer said the currency may trade between a range of 75.80 US cents and 77.20.