The New Zealand dollar did not stray far from US68c today, after recovering from yesterday's stumble.
At 5pm today the kiwi was buying US68.00c, from a low of US67.35c during yesterday's local session after the release of weaker than expected jobs data.
Against the Australian dollar the kiwi was fetching A91.88c at 5pm today, from A91.31c at the same time yesterday.
The kiwi fell yesterday on data showing the jobless rate was 3.6 per cent in the December quarter against 3.7 per cent in the September quarter, heavily revised up from 3.4 per cent.
Today the Reserve Bank (RB) announced it was increasing the amount of cash it aims to leave each day in the banking system, to $2 billion from $500 million starting February 13. On January 31 the RB said it would temporarily raise the cash settlement rate to $500 million from the usual $20 million. The kiwi did not react to today's news, which the RB said was of "no real significance".
Likely to have more impact are retail trade figures for the December quarter, due out Tuesday.
The greenback was firm today, as the market waited on December trade data due late tonight NZT.
Analysts said if the numbers come in worse than expected it could shift the market's focus to the growing US trade gap, prompting dealers to sell.
Economists expect the US trade deficit widened to US$65 billion in December from November's US$64.2 billion, which was the third-highest monthly level ever.
Rates:
5pm today 5pm Thursday
NZ dlr US68.00c US67.53c
NZ dlr/Aust dlr A91.88c A91.31c
NZ dlr/euro 0.5672 0.5637
NZ dlr/yen 80.52 80.01
NZ dlr/stg 38.99p 38.72p
NZ TWI 70.09 69.61
Australian dollar US74.00c US73.87c
Euro/US dollar US1.1986 US1.1966
US dollar/yen 118.42 118.60
- NZPA
<EM>Currency:</EM> Kiwi recovers after jobs data quivers
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