The New Zealand dollar traded in a tight 10-point range yesterday, held hostage by a host of negative data from Australia.
At 5 pm the kiwi was at 43.58USc from 43.65c at 9 am, having languished between 43.49c and 43.59c for most of the day.
"It was basically held a little bit hostage to the aussie drifting off most of its day," a currency dealer said.
"It was a fairly quiet day."
The kiwi was expected to remain trapped in a similar range overnight, trading in a range of 43.40c to 43.80c.
Gloomiest of the batch of data out of Australia yesterday was a 10 per cent decline in ANZ job advertisements last month, suggesting that the already soft labour market was headed further south.
The ANZ said job ads over the year to February fell 27 per cent, the largest annual decline since the last recession in 1991.
A cloud also continued to hover over Australia's building industry, with figures showing that sector in worse shape than experts had predicted. After allowing for seasonal factors, building approvals dropped 3.7 per cent in January to 10,020 units from 10,409 in December, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said.
The January drop means building approvals have slumped 40 per cent in 12 months.
Australian retail trade figures were the one bright spot of the day, rising 0.9 per cent during the January sales period against expectations of a fall of 0.4 per cent.
The host of negative data saw the aussie plummet to 52.70USc by 5 pm, from 53.05c at 9 am, and brought with it renewed expectations of a near term rate cut.
The Australian Reserve Bank board meets today and could announce a cut in official interest rates tomorrow, as the Australian economy continues to underperform expectations.
The weaker aussie saw the kiwi regain its strength on the crosses, however, closing at 82.72Ac.
The trade weighted index strengthened to 50.87 from 50.52 on Friday and, with 90-day bills rallying to 6.38 per cent (6.43), the monetary conditions index tightened to minus 639 from minus 673.
- NZPA
<i>Currency:</i> Dismal Aussie data holds back dollar
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