Dollar makes late run against greenback

The New Zealand dollar made a late run against the United States currency, which had earlier slumped to a 15-month low due to weak US homebuilding sentiment.

Selling interests failed to stop the NZ dollar's push above US71c.

Around 5.30pm today, the kiwi was buying US71.16c, up from its morning level of US70.68c which in turn was little changed from late yesterday afternoon.

Overnight it sank to US70.30c, its lowest level in nearly a fortnight.

The kiwi eased to A81.07c against a firmer Australian dollar in the wake of minutes released from a Reserve Bank of Australian rate-setting meeting earlier in July.

The Australian dollar jumped after RBA governor Glenn Stevens said the global outlook was increasingly uncertain, although there were some positives for the Australian economy.

The RBA had left rates steady at 4.5 per cent, and said it was waiting for more data before deciding what to do at its next rates meeting, in August.

The aussie was almost US1c higher at US87.77c from its level late yesterday afternoon.

The NZ dollar was a touch firmer at 0.5461 euro from 0.5478, having troughed at a nearly two-month low of around 0.5420 euro overnight.

The kiwi was buying 61.94 yen, up from 61.27 yen yesterday, and rose to 46.60p from 46.17p.

The trade weighted index rose to 66.82 from 66.59 yesterday.

The US dollar continued to flirt with Friday's seven-month low against the yen despite being bid up by Japanese importers, amid speculation about government intervention in the Japanese currency.

- NZPA