Kiwi stable as Thanksgiving eases trading

The kiwi was at 65.46 US cents at 8am in Wellington, from 65.38 cents at the New York close and 66.44 cents at 5pm on Friday.

The New Zealand dollar was largely unchanged heading into the week's close as the Thanksgiving holiday in the US sapped trading activity and as investors geared up for a series of central bank meetings next month.

The kiwi traded at US65.72c at 5pm yesterday from US65.63c a week ago in New York. It traded at US65.67c at 8am yesterday, down from US65.87c on Thursday. The trade-weighted index was at 71.48 from 71.54 on Thursday, and 71.57 at last week's New York close.

A BusinessDesk survey of 11 currency analysts on Monday predicted the kiwi would trade between US64.30c and US67.10c this week, with five expecting it to gain, two saying it would fall and four betting it would stay largely unchanged.

Trading activity tapered off in the tail-end of the week with the US holiday scaling back activity and leaving markets illiquid. That exacerbated a reluctance from investors to take strong positions with central bank reviews in Australia, Europe, New Zealand and the US coming up over the next three weeks.

While Australia, Europe and New Zealand are all seen as having a tilt towards looser monetary policy, the Federal Reserve is tipped to start raising interest rates.

"The major focus is really next week with the central banks -- we've got the RBA and ECB [European Central Bank], the [New Zealand] Reserve Bank the following week and then the week after that, the Fed -- this is what we've been waiting a long time for," said Mark Johnson, senior foreign exchange dealer at OMF in Wellington.

Reserve Bank data yesterday showed the bank was a net seller of kiwi dollars in October for the first time since April, selling a net $17 million. The Reserve Bank buys and sells currencies through the course of its operations.

New Zealand's two-year swap rates rose two basis points to 2.7 per cent at 5pm in Wellington, and 10-year swaps were unchanged at 3.52 per cent.

The local currency was little changed at A90.94c from A90.98c on Thursday, and decreased to 4.2015 Chinese yuan from 4.2085 yuan. It slipped to 80.57 yen from 80.74 yen, and was little changed at 61.91 euro cents from 62.01 cents on Thursday. The kiwi was almost unchanged at 43.53 British pence from 43.54p.