The kiwi traded in a tight range on thin volumes today, as the United States dollar continued to firm.
At 5pm today in Wellington, the kiwi was at US70.86c from US71.15c at 5pm on Friday, having traded in a range of US70.61c to US70.94c range.
Westpac currency strategist Johnathan Bayley said there was not a lot of flow today and liquidity was thin. He said while kiwi sentiment was still poor, today's softening of the New Zealand dollar had more to do with US dollar strength than kiwi selling.
T he US dollar strengthened on Friday after the market shrugged off a surprisingly weak US jobs report and focused on data suggesting inflation could rise.
The dollar was initially dumped on Friday after a soft headline number in the March payrolls report, but it recovered as the market zeroed in on data showing a slight rise in hourly wages
Looking ahead to the rest of the week, Mr Bayley said the kiwi's movements later in the week will hinge on whether the Reserve Bank of Australia decides to hike interest rates or not. The market is fairly evenly split on whether rates will rise or not.
At 5pm today the aussie was fetching US77.04c, from US77.29c at 5pm Friday, and the kiwi was buying A91.99c (A92.00c).
Meanwhile the greenback was buying 107.69 yen, against 107.47 at 5pm on Friday while the euro was at US$1.2893c (US$1.2959 5pm on Friday).
On its other crosses the kiwi was fetching 76.32 yen (76.47), 0.5496 euro (0.5490), 37.72 British pence (37.73), and 0.8533 Swiss francs (0.8624).
The trade-weighted index was at 69.63 (69.73), while the monetary conditions index was at plus 1002 (1008).
On the money markets, 90-day bank bill yields were at 7.10 per cent (7.09), July 2009 bonds were at 6.27 per cent (6.25) and April 2015s were at 6.15 per cent (6.12).
- NZPA
<EM>Currency:</EM> Kiwi trades tight range above us70c
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