KEY POINTS:
A sharp fall in the Australian dollar after the Reserve Bank of Australia left interest rates unchanged, helped pull the kiwi down today.
The New Zealand dollar lost against all currencies except the aussie, where it rose slightly to A89.55c from A89.50c at 5pm yesterday.
Some analysts said the RBA would now leave interest rates steady until after the Federal election due to in October or November.
Against the greenback, the kiwi lost the best part of half a cent, ending at US73.69c from US74.14c yesterday.
The US dollar made gains in the wake of data that showed US manufacturing expanded at its fastest pace in almost a year.
The Institute for Supply Management said its index of national factory activity rose to 54.7 in April from 50.9 in March. The reading was the highest since May 2006.
Although separate data released yesterday showed that pending sales of existing US homes in March fell to their lowest level in four years, the upbeat manufacturing report was enough to give the dollar a boost, traders and analysts said.
Data released on Friday showed that International Monetary Market speculators increased their net short dollar position to US$23.48 billion ($32 billion) in the week ending April 24, from around US$20.95 billion the previous week, according to Reuters calculations.
The solid manufacturing data, however, wasn't enough to drastically alter market expectations for the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates later this year from 5.25 per cent.
The euro slipped slightly to US$1.3563 having pulled back from a record high of US$1.3683 hit last week.
Reuters currency rates:
5pm today 5pm yesterday
NZ dlr/US dlr US73.69c US74.14c
NZ dlr/Aust dlr A89.55c A89.50c
NZ dlr/euro 0.5437 0.5432
NZ dlr/yen 88.48 88.65
NZ dlr/stg 36.96p 37.07p
NZ TWI 71.59 71.74
Australian dollar US82.28c US82.84c
Euro/US dollar 1.3563 1.3651
US dollar/yen 120.05 119.56
- NZPA