The New Zealand dollar failed to hold onto the momentum generated by upbeat retail sales figures out today.
The kiwi dollar continued to consolidate, ending at US64.04c, just four points above yesterday's close.
Positive retail sales data sent the kiwi as high as US64.63c. The data showed core sales, excluding auto and fuel sales, jumped 1.3 per cent on June, and the headline total sales rose 0.5 per cent.
"The market was expecting 0.4 per cent but the market was caught very short and there were a large number of stop losses," senior ANZ Investment Bank dealer Mark Elliott said.
Then just as suddenly, the rally petered out, although the New Zealand currency retained some strength against a weaker yen and aussie, closing at 75.57 yen (compared to 75.24 yen) and A85.39c (A85.02c)
Dealers said the market's focus was on the Reserve Bank's monetary policy statement on Thursday.
Although no interest rate change is expected, analysts are expected to be looking for hawkish signals in the statement.
Reuters currency rates:
5pm today 5pm Tuesday
NZ dlr/US dlr US64.04c US64.00
NZ dlr/Aust dlr A85.39c A85.02c
NZ dlr/euro 0.5048 0.5032
NZ dlr/yen 75.57 75.24
NZ dlr/stg 34.20p 34.24p
NZ TWI 64.52 64.35
Australian dollar US75.00c US75.24c
Euro/US dollar 1.2686 1.2719
US dollar/yen 117.97 117.54
- NZPA
<i>Currency:</i> Kiwi consolidates around US64c
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