Currency: Kiwi slips on weak trade data

The New Zealand dollar closed a little softer today after yet another piece of economic data -- this time the trade balance -- came in weaker than expected.

At 5pm in Wellington, the kiwi was buying US70.60c from US70.81c at 8.30am and US70.71c at yesterday's local close. Its range during today's local session was US7049c to US70.81c.

ANZ chief forex dealer Murray Hindley said the kiwi had been "a little bit weaker after the trade data, but recovered back to the highs later."

New Zealand's trade balance was again worse than expected in May.

Instead of the $300 million surplus predicted by economists, a $25 million deficit was posted, Statistics New Zealand reported.

That took the deficit in the year to May to over $5 billion against economists' forecasts of $4.69 billion.

Mr Hindley said the kiwi's recovery from the trade data was short-lived - it traded a little softer again this afternoon as the Asian session progressed. It was currently finding support at about US70.40c and resistance at US70.80c.

For the remainder of the week the market would focus on the US Federal Reserve Bank's interest rate call on Thursday morning New Zealand time and Japan's "Tankan" survey of economic activity on Friday.

At 5pm in Wellington, the greenback was buying 109.64 yen (109.29 at 5pm yesterday) and the Australian dollar was at US76.80c (US76.88c).

On its crosses, the kiwi buying A91.96c (A91.98c), 38.68 British pence (38.77), 0.5807 euro (0.5830), 0.8961 Swiss francs (0.8990) and 77.42 yen (77.28).

The trade-weighted index was at 70.81 (70.92), and the monetary conditions index was at plus 1081 (1088).

On the money markets, 90-day bank bill yields were steady at 7.04 per cent, as were the July 2009 bonds at 5.81 per cent, while April 2015s were unchanged at 5.68 per cent.

- NZPA