The New Zealand dollar hovered near a six-week low today, weighed down by technical issues and a stubbornly strong US dollar.
The kiwi closed locally at US68.24c, just above a six-week low of US68.11c touched in intraday trading on Friday, but down on Friday's close of US68.78c.
BNZ currency strategist Sue Trinh said the New Zealand dollar's chart over the past week was "just plain ugly".
Over the course of last week the trade weighted index (TWI), which measures the kiwi against the currencies of the country's five main trading partners, fell 1.5 percent.
Against its Australian counterpart, the kiwi closed at A93.07, having dipped to a 1-1/2 week low of A92.83c during the session.
Locally, the focus this week will be on the labour market, with third quarter wage data due out tomorrow, and a quarterly employment survey on Thursday.
Tomorrow's labour cost index (LCI) is expected to rise 0.7 percent compared with the previous quarter and 2.7 percent on a year ago.
Thursday's employment data is expected to show quarterly employment growth of 0.3 percent, leaving the unemployment rate at 3.7 percent.
The data will add to Reserve Bank Governor Alan Bollard's inflation woes.
Last week he issued a stern warning about the over-heated housing market and an over-indebted household sector .
The ASB Bank's latest housing confidence survey, out today, indicates Dr Bollard's comments are falling on deaf ears.
A net 30 percent of survey respondents believe house prices will rise in the next 12 months, up from a net 20 percent in the previous quarter.
The following are Reuters currency rates:
NZ dlr US68.24c US68.78c
NZ dlr/Aust dlr A93.07c A93.10c
NZ dlr/euro 0.5775 0.5762
NZ dlr/yen 80.36 80.84
NZ dlr/stg 38.96p 38.90p
NZ TWI 70.61 70.82
Australian dollar US73.32c US73.85c
Euro/US dollar US1.1817 US1.1935
US dollar/yen 117.78 117.55
- NZPA
<EM>Currency:</EM> Kiwi hovers near six week lows
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