Trade in the New Zealand dollar was muted today as Asian players took a break to celebrate the Chinese new year.
At 5pm the kiwi was buying US67.30c (from US66.57c at 5pm last night), having traded in a narrow US67.05c to US67.25c range.
The Australian dollar was at US77.45c (US76.80c).
Deutsche Bank's Phil Lindberg said the Chinese new year holiday which will see Asian markets including Singapore and Hong Kong closed until Monday meant trade had been "very, very quiet".
He said things may pick up tonight when European and US markets opened,"but Asia's out for the next few days and with New Zealand being out on Monday (for Auckland Anniversary day) it might slow things down a tad".
Until today, the kiwi was back on the rise after falling as the US dollar found a rare firm patch a week ago. But Mr Lindberg said "everything's benefiting again" from US dollar weakness. "We've had a clean out, and we're back to square one again."
Mr Lindberg expected the kiwi to trade in a US67.00c to US67.45c range tonight.
Meanwhile at 5pm the euro was at US$1.2675 (US$1.2571), and the greenback was buying 106.89 yen (107.22).
On the crosses, the New Zealand dollar was buying A86.90c (A86.68c), 0.5311 euro (0.5296), 71.96 yen (71.37), 36.70 British pence (36.65), and 0.8319 Swiss francs (0.8311).
On a trade weighted basis, the New Zealand dollar was at 66.32 (65.91).
The monetary conditions index was at plus 585 (562), and 90-day bank bills were at 5.36 per cent (5.35).
On the debt market, February 2006 bond yields were at 5.46 per cent (5.49), July 2009 bonds were at 5.74 per cent (5.75), and April 2013 bonds were at 5.89 per cent (5.91).
- NZPA
<i>Currency:</i> Dollar marks time as Chinese New Year curbs trade
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