The New Zealand dollar drifter lower throughout the local session today after hitting a two month high overnight.
At 5pm in Wellington the kiwi was at US63.90c, down from US64.08c at 8.30am which was its highest since late April, but up from US63.66c at 5pm yesterday.
The kiwi traded in a range of US63.85c and US64.20c during today's local session.
"Basically the whole theme throughout the local session has been a drift lower on the day, from the session highs overnight, after rallying up towards that key resistance level around that US64.20c to US64.25c region," BNZ currency strategist Sue Trinh said.
She said the kiwi has been struggling to gain traction through this resistance level, and its rallies have looked unconvincing ahead of the US Federal Reserve's interest rate announcement later this week.
"It seems that the bias in the market at the moment is to sell on rallies. People are a bit reluctant to take on too much risk ahead of the Federal Reserve's rate announcement," Ms Trinh said.
The kiwi buoyancy in recent days comes on the back of stronger than expected economic data, including yesterday's $656 million May trade surplus figure and last week's strong GDP and current account numbers.
The US Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) begins a two day meeting tomorrow morning NZT, where it is expected to announced a 25 basis point rate rise.
At 5pm, the New Zealand dollar was buying A91.44c (from A91.34c at the same time last night) and the greenback was buying 108.36 yen (107.67), while the euro was fetching US$1.2182 (US$1.2154).
On the crosses, the kiwi was buying 34.95 British pence (34.93), 0.5245 euro (0.5237), 69.23 yen (68.52), and 0.7967 Swiss francs (0.7962).
The trade-weighted index was at 64.90 (64.68), while the monetary conditions index was at plus 557 (538).
On the money market, 90-day bank bill yields were at 6.17 per cent (6.15), February 2006 bonds were at 6.07 per cent (6.03), July 2009s were at 6.23 per cent (6.17) and April 2013s were at 6.32 per cent (6.26).
- NZPA
<i>Currency:</i> Kiwi drifts lower from overnight highs
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