The kiwi dollar ground lower throughout the local trading session, as the US dollar staged a broad-based rally.
A Wellington dealer said the kiwi's drift down was in line with falls in other major currencies against the greenback.
At 5pm today the kiwi was buying US70.03, from US70.59c at yesterday's close. The dealer said he would not be surprised to see the kiwi fall by as much as US2c over the next two weeks.
"I think given the way the US dollar has rallied against all the other currencies in the last 12 hours, it looks like that bounce we saw in the kiwi on the US trade numbers...was an aberration," he said.
At 5pm today the US dollar was at 102.82 yen, from 102.57 yen at 5pm yesterday.
The euro slipped last night on the back of comments by European Central Bank (ECB) president Jean-Claude Trichet. The ECB yesterday left its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 2 per cent. In his accompanying comments Mr Trichet said he expected inflation in the eurozone to slip below 2 per cent over the course of 2005 and called the recent rise of the euro "unwelcome".
By 5pm tonight the euro was at US$1.3125, down from US$1.3254 at yesterday's close.
The Australian dollar was trading at US76.04c compared with US76.57c at 5pm yesterday.
On the crosses, the kiwi was buying A92.09c (A92.04c yesterday), 0.5337 euro (0.5319), 37.40 British pence (37.30), 72.00 yen (72.29), and 0.8262 Swiss francs (0.8231).
The New Zealand dollar trade-weighted index was at 68.12 (67.25), while the monetary conditions index was at plus 857 (866).
There was virtually no movement on the money markets, with 90-day bank bill yields unchanged at 6.74 per cent, November 2006 bond yields were at 6.14 per cent (6.15), July 2009s were at 5.94 per cent (5.97) and April 2015s at 5.86 per cent (5.90).
- NZPA
<EM>Currency:</EM> Kiwi falls as US dollar rallies
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