Kiwi up against greenback

The New Zealand dollar was nearly back to the 10-month high against the greenback reached last week, after data showed the decline of the United States economy slowed sharply.

US gross domestic product fell at an annual pace of 1 per cent in the second quarter. That's a big improvement over the 6.4 per cent contraction in the first three months of the year.

Bad signals from economic reports and poor earnings tend to help the US dollar as investors seek safety, often in US government debt; good news and stronger equities usually correspond with a drop in the greenback's value.

By 8am the NZ dollar was buying US66.08c from US65.68c at 5pm on Friday. The kiwi peaked early on Saturday at US66.26c, according to Reuters data.

In its morning briefing notes, ANZ bank said the slow squeeze higher for the NZ dollar was against a backdrop of offshore US dollar selling.

Month-end positioning helped the NZ dollar to look again at major topside resistance at US66.30c.

The NZ dollar was also down to A79.06c against its Australian counterpart at 8am today from A79.23c at 5pm on Friday.

The kiwi was also down to 0.4630 euro from 0.4647, and was little changed at 62.59 yen. The trade weighted index was 61.39 at 8am from 61.42 at 5pm on Friday.

- NZPA