KEY POINTS:
The New Zealand dollar softened today after receiving a fillip from US stocks, which got a boost overnight by a move by savvy billionaire Warren Buffett.
Buffett has offered to assume up to US$800 billion ($1023 billion) in debt for troubled bond insurers.
The news helped lift US equities and renewed interest in "risky" currencies like the New Zealand dollar.
The kiwi was pushed to a week-high of US79.55c overnight, but by opening trading it had eased to around US79.20c and drifted lower to US79.05 by the close.
However, this was still a tad stronger than yesterday's close of US78.85c.
The kiwi performed similarly against other trading partners, closing at 84.68 yen (84.31 yen yesterday) and at A87.40c (A87.26c) against the aussie.
The TWI strengthened slightly to 72.75 from 72.66 yesterday.
Westpac strategist Michael Gordon said the kiwi-aussie cross remained in the same range it had been in for a couple of months, much to the frustration of some traders.
They "obviously see much stronger economic data in Australia relative to here and a much stronger stance by their central bank and yet the cross rate just hasn't made any progress at all".
He said the kiwi had come off slightly after softer real estate data was released today but the trend had largely been expected.
Reuters currency rates:
NZ dlr/US dlr US79.05c US78.85c
NZ dlr/Aust dlr A87.40c A87.26c
NZ dlr/euro 0.5423 0.5433
NZ dlr/yen 84.68 84.31
NZ dlr/stg 40.37p 40.43p
NZ TWI 72.75 72.66
Australian dollar US90.45c US90.37c
Euro/US dollar 1.4577 1.4513
US dollar/yen 107.15 106.95
- NZPA
