NZ dollar remains in US72c range

The New Zealand dollar was mixed and confined to a fairly narrow range today.

Economists said it did not react to the Reserve Bank of New Zealand quarterly survey of inflation expectations, when it probably should have.

The survey showed a rise in the two-year-ahead inflation expectation to 2.61 per cent from 2.25 per cent in the previous quarter.

Westpac said the odds of a hawkish tone in the December monetary policy statement just got higher.

The NZ dollar was at US72.80c at 5pm from US73.29c at 8am and US72.66c at 5pm yesterday. It spent much of the afternoon in a narrow range between US72.79c and US72.95c.

At 5pm the NZ dollar was up to 0.4871 euro and 64.70 yen, from 0.4863 euro and 64.60 yen at 5pm yesterday.

Against the Australian dollar, the NZ dollar lifted to A79.07c from A79c yesterday, while the trade weighted index moved up to 64.92 from 64.82.

BNZ Capital senior strategist Danica Hampton said investor sentiment had made a swift about-turn during the past 24 hours.

Stronger than expected US home sales figures were among upbeat global data that helped ease some concerns about the global outlook.

Equity markets rebounded and commodity prices were dragged higher by a surge in gold, she said.

- NZPA