The kiwi continued to trade weakly today as offshore selling continued.
Shortly after 5pm the kiwi was trading at US70.73c compared with US70.99c at 5pm yesterday, having ranged between US70.48c and US70.83c.
A Wellington dealer said the kiwi was finding support around US70.50c.
"I would expect probably it to be capped at US70.80c overnight, and current weakness to continue," he said.
The kiwi has been sold off over the past week, but firmed briefly yesterday when Reserve Bank governor Alan Bollard reiterated his hawkish stance on interest rates. The RB next meets in June and Dr Bollard has not ruled out further tightening.
But Real Estate Institute figures out today which showed a sharp 3 per cent fall in housing prices in April may take the pressure off Dr Bollard to raise rates again.
The greenback continued its broad-based gains today following the release of the US April producer price index (PPI). Expectations that the US Federal Reserve would keep raising its key interest rate were encouraged after the PPI edged up 0.6 per cent from a month earlier, compared with forecasts for a rise of 0.4 per cent.
At 5pm today, the greenback was buying 107.69 yen (107.05) at 5pm in Wellington while the euro was buying US$1.608 (US$1.2634). The Australian dollar was at US75.53c (US75.83c).
On the kiwi's major crosses, the kiwi was buying A93.65c (A93.643c), 0.5611 euro (0.5619), 76.17 yen (76.01), 38.60 British pence (38.60), and 0.8660 Swiss francs (0.8681).
The trade-weighted index was at 70.28 (70.37), while the monetary conditions index was at plus 1043 (1051).
On the money markets, 90-day bank bill yields were at 7.04 per cent (7.06), the July 2009 were at 5.90 per cent (5.89), while the April 2015s were at 5.75 per cent (5.80).
- NZPA
<EM>Currency:</EM> Kiwi continues to soften
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