The New Zealand dollar ended a volatile 24 hours little changed against the US dollar, but it lost about half a cent against the Australian dollar.
By 5pm today, it was trading at US65.75c from US65.87c at the same time yesterday.
Both the US and Australian dollars were buoyed by comments from their respective central banks dampening rate cut expectations.
Against the Australian currency the kiwi again struggled at the A88.80c to A89.20c crossroads, after comments from Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Glenn Stevens that interest rates in Australia were more likely to rise than fall, ANZ said.
The kiwi finished at A88.04c compared with A88.54c yesterday.
The US dollar hovered near a 10-month high against the yen as minutes from the Federal Reserve's last policy meeting scaled back market expectations that the central bank could cut interest rates in early 2007.
The US dollar had dropped on news a small plane had crashed into a building in New York but quickly recovered most of its losses after US officials said they had no evidence the incident was tied to terrorism.
The minutes from the Fed's September 20 meeting released on Wednesday showed that the central bank's policy-makers remained "quite concerned" about inflation risks and renewed their commitment to control inflation pressures.
The ANZ bank today said the NZ dollar had an upward bias after the "mammoth" government surplus announced yesterday.
The $11.5 billion surplus was a record, even though slightly misleading because $1.8 billion was due to a change in accounting.
ANZ said there was much debate about how much higher the NZ dollar would run as it remained trapped within a relatively tight US65.50c to US66.50c range for now.
The trade weighted index ended on 66.69 from 66.84.
Reuters currency rates:
5pm today 5pm Wednesday
NZ dlr/US dlr US65.75c US65.87c
NZ dlr/Aust dlr A88.04c A88.54c
NZ dlr/euro 0.5245 0.5254
NZ dlr/yen 78.62 78.83
NZ dlr/stg 35.41p 35.52p
NZ TWI 66.69 66.84
Australian dollar US74.66c US74.38c
Euro/US dollar 1.2530 1.2539
US dollar/yen 119.58 119.65
-NZPA
<i>Currency:</i> Dollar little-changed after volatile day
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