Kiwi dollar falls short of US69c

The New Zealand dollar launched yet another assault on the US69c level and once again fell just short.

In the past two weeks the kiwi has pushed above US68.90c several times without being able to go much higher.

It did so again early on Saturday, and even pushed up briefly just before 8am today.

By 8am the NZ dollar was buying US68.86c, from around US68c at 5pm Friday, having climbed from a two-week low near US66.80c early on Thursday.

ANZ bank said the NZ dollar lunged into yet another failed attack run on US69c, after leveraging off new found support at US68c in late Friday trading.

The NZ dollar saw plenty of buying action over the weekend as risk was put back on the table after better than expected labour data out of the United States, and comments from Finance Minister Bill English on the success of a recent government bonds issue, ANZ said.

It expected the NZ dollar to be subdued in the next 48 hours with a holiday in the US tonight, and said support levels would come under pressure ahead of the Reserve Bank's interest rate announcement on Thursday.

By 8am today, the NZ dollar was at A80.89c against the Australian dollar, barely changed from its level at 5pm on Friday.

The kiwi was also buying 0.4816 euro at the local open from 0.4770 at Friday's local close, and was up to 64.04 yen from 62.93. The trade weighted index was up to 63.63 at 8am from 62.93 at 5pm on Friday.

- NZPA