The New Zealand dollar traded in a tight range today, consolidating overnight gains on the back of ongoing US dollar weakness.
By 5pm the kiwi was at its high for the day of US58.94c from yesterday's close of US58.32c. It had traded as low as US58.65c.
BNZ currency strategist Sue Trinh said the kiwi had been firmer on the day.
" It's been really been follow-through on the soured US dollar sentiment that began about two weeks ago with unfavourable US payrolls numbers."
The kiwi's progress in tonight's offshore session would be dictated by the US Federal Reserve Bank's rate announcement, scheduled to take place at about 6am tomorrow New Zealand time.
"The market's expecting no change from that 1 per cent (US) cash rate from the Fed", Ms Trinh said, adding "It's not so much what the Fed do that's important to the market, it's the accompanying statement".
"The whole market is really optimistic right now about the economic rebound in the US and they're expecting that the Fed will start to tighten rates some time into next year. So they're looking for what sort of signals the Fed is going to give regarding that."
Key resistance for the kiwi was currently at US58.90c.
"If it gets through there convincingly then we might see a bit of a spike higher to US59.20c", Ms Trinh said.
Meanwhile by 5pm in Wellington, the aussie was buying US66.66c (US66.23c at 5pm last night).
The euro had strengthened to US$1.1309 (US$1.1276), and the US dollar was buying 117.13 yen (117.32).
On the crosses at 5pm the kiwi was at A88.42c (A88.05c last night), 69.05 yen (68.42), 36.72 pence (36.36), 0.8129 Swiss francs (0.8055), and 0.5211 euro (0.5170).
The Australian dollar was buying $1.1310 ($1.1355).
The monetary conditions index was at plus 291 (247), the trade-weighted index was at 62.78 (62.24) and 90-day bank bill yields were at 5.17 per cent (5.14).
The February 2005 yields were at 5.32 per cent (5.34), the November 2006s were at 5.57 per cent (5.58), and the November 2011s were at 5.88 per cent (5.91).
- NZPA
<i>Currency:</i> Kiwi consolidates overnight gains
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.