Dollar eases back, awaits employment data

The New Zealand dollar drifted lower today after firming and attention is now turning to tomorrow's employment report for the December quarter.

The NZ dollar was US71.06.c at 5pm from US71.26c at 8am and US70.58c at 5pm yesterday.

"The NZ dollar tried to push higher early in the morning on the back of positive offshore sentiment," said Mike Jones, currency strategist at BNZ.

It headed to US71.30c but ran out steam and was then knocked lower by reports that some Chinese banks had been downgraded.

"That hit risk appetite a bit and both kiwi and aussie headed steadily lower," he said.

"It's been a pretty quite day overall," he said. Investors took the latest internet auction by Fonterra in their stride.

Overnight the focus will again be on problems with the Greek economy and then on the Household Labour Force Survey for the December quarter tomorrow.

Economists expect and unemployment rate of 6.8 per cent and the Reserve Bank of New Zealand is expecting 6.6 per cent from 6.5 per cent in the September quarter.

The NZ dollar was at A80.23c at 5pm from A80.09c at the same time yesterday, and was at 0.5089 euro from 0.5080 and 64.21 yen from 64.04.

The trade weighted index rose to 65.44 from 65.20.

- NZPA