The kiwi ended today's local session slightly softer as the US dollar continued to firm.
A Wellington dealer said it had been a choppy session, and the kiwi had "mirrored the action of other currencies against the US dollar".
At 5pm in Wellington today, the kiwi was at US70.60c from US70.86c at 5pm yesterday having traded in a US70.41c to US70.74c range today.
The US currency has gained upward momentum as it tripped key technical levels, extending a rally that began when the Federal Reserve suggested two weeks ago that it could raise rates more quickly than the current moderate pace if inflation heated up.
Since then, the dollar has risen three per cent against the yen and 2.5 per cent versus the euro, shrugging off weak data including a report showing the US economy generated 110,000 non-farm jobs last month, half of what economists had forecast.
Although it dipped against the greenback the kiwi held its ground against the aussie ahead of tomorrow's interest rate announcement by the Reserve Bank of Australia.
At 5pm in Wellington the kiwi was buying A92.29c (A91.99c at 5pm yesterday) and the aussie was fetching US76.57c, from US77.04c at 5pm yesterday.
The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) met today to decide whether to follow last month's interest rate hike with another rise tomorrow. The RBA is under pressure to leave rates on hold, but most economists expect the RBA will lift the overnight cash rate by a quarter per cent to 5.75 per cent.
Any decision by the RBA will not be announced until 0930 AEST (1130 NZT) tomorrow.
Better than expected trade data out today showed that Australia's goods and services trade deficit fell slightly to A$2.2 billion last month .
Meanwhile the greenback was buying 108.59 yen (107.69) while the euro was at US$1.2834 (US$1.2893).
On its other crosses the kiwi was fetching 76.76 yen (76.32), 0.5507 euro (0.5496), 37.61 British pence (37.72), and 0.8551 Swiss francs (0.8533).
The trade-weighted index was at 69.64 (69.63), while the monetary conditions index was at plus 1003 (1002).
On the money markets, 90-day bank bill yields were unchanged at 7.10 per cent, July 2009 bonds were at 6.25 per cent (6.27) and April 2015s were at 6.14 per cent (6.15).
- NZPA
<EM>Currency:</EM> Kiwi slips again as Greenback continues to strengthen
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.