The New Zealand dollar hung around 41.60USc yesterday after being sucked down by its Australian counterpart as the price of gold fell.
Shortly after 5 pm the kiwi was at 41.60USc from 42.20USc at yesterday's close, having spent the day trading in fairly light volumes.
"We haven't had a whole heap of trading in terms of great movements in the currency. It has really been an Aussie story," one currency dealer said.
"We have seen a bit of a selloff in the aussie against the yen and that has been the basic story all day today - the kiwi has just sort of followed on after it."
The Australian dollar closed at 51.10USc from 51.97USc at yesterday's local close, driven lower by stop-loss activity and a 3 per cent fall in the price of gold to $US287 ($696.94) from $US290 overnight.
That was the biggest one-day fall for two years and marked seven days in a row of losses for gold.
"It is the gold story. We had a bit of a selloff last night and that exacerbated that move downwards for the aussie," the dealer said
The kiwi more than held its own on the cross, closing at 81.43Ac, up from 81.18Ac.
Dealers expected the kiwi to trade between 41.40USc and 41.90USc overnight, as investors hang on the sidelines before a host of United States data due out today.
"It is quite critical that that 41.50USc area holds or we could go right down to the 41.20USc area," one dealer said.
The US data includes non-farm payrolls, weekly jobless claims and the purchasing management survey.
- NZPA
<i>Currency:</i> Kiwi down as big gold fall affects aussie
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