The New Zealand dollar held at a week-high against the greenback after figures showed the US added more jobs in April and in previous months, helping lift stocks on Wall Street, commodity prices and growth-linked currencies such as the kiwi.
The New Zealand dollar traded at 85.30 US cents, from 85.32 cents in late New York trading on Friday and from 85.22 cents in Wellington at the end of last week. The trade-weighted index was unchanged at 78.64, also near a week-high.
Friday's US payrolls report not only surpassed expectations about the number of jobs created in April, it also showed upward revisions to the previous two months to the tune of 114,000 extra workers that went a long way to easing concerns about recent signs of a slowdown in the pace of the recovery. The S&P 500 ended the week at a record 1614.42 and the Thomson Reuters/Jefferies CRB Commodity Index gained 1.2 per cent.
The jobs data "hasn't completely obliterated concerns about a slowing US economy but it certainly went some way," said Alex Sinton, senior dealer at ANZ New Zealand. Gains in commodities also helped lift the kiwi and Australian dollar, with gains exaggerated in metals such as copper, where some traders were "massively short."
The kiwi may trade in a range of 85.10 US cents to 85.70 cents today, he said.
