The New Zealand dollar, along with most other non-United States currencies made ground during today's local forex session following last night's comments from US Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan.
The kiwi ended the day in Wellington at US68.06c -- its highest close in week and well up on yesterday's US67.47c close. Its range today was US67.66c to US68.12c.
Mr Greenspan told Congress the US growth outlook was solid and the Fed will keep lifting interest rates.
But he warned "significant uncertainties" confront this positive prospect, including high energy prices, labour costs, the future path of long-term interest rates and the danger this could spell for the country's housing market.
"After Greenspan's comments we've seen a pull back (a rise following a fall) in all of the non US dollar currencies," ANZ Investment Bank chief foreign exchange dealer Murray Hindley said.
That aside, Mr Hindley said it had been a "steady range trade day" for the kiwi.
Mr Greenspan will speak to Congress again tonight NZ time and that along with US leading economic indicators data would dictate the greenback's and other currencies' near term direction.
Mr Hindley picked the kiwi to find support at US67.20c and resistance at US68.20c tonight.
At 5pm in Wellington the greenback was fetching 112.54 yen (113.07 at 5pm yesterday), the euro was at US$1.2169 (US$1.2080) and the aussie was buying US75.95c (US75.19c).
On its crosses, the kiwi was buying A89.62c (A89.73c), 0.5595 euro (0.5586), 39.01 British pence (38.84), 0.8738 Swiss francs (0.8741) and 76.61 yen (76.31).
Elsewhere, the TWI was at 68.96 (68.75) and the monetary conditions index at plus 948 (932).
On the money markets, 90-day bank bill yields were unchanged at 7.03 per cent, July 2009 bond yields were at 5.84 per cent (5.81) and April 2015s were at 5.76 per cent (5.75).
- NZPA
<EM>Currency:</EM> Kiwi closes at week high
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