The New Zealand dollar eased slightly yesterday but remained firmly entrenched above US54.50c.
By 5pm the kiwi was at US54.66c from US54.72c at Thursday's close, while the Australian dollar rose to US60.68c (US60.61c).
One local dealer said the kiwi traded between US54.60/77c today in a quiet session.
"The market's just waiting to see whether the US dollar is going to show signs of weakness against the euro, or strength, and no-one can make up their mind because it's not doing anything at the moment.
"We're waiting to see at the moment -- it's stuck in a US54.50/80c range, and we're going to need some spur to break out of that range. Friday nights seem to be a good night to do it, though, so you can't discount that we will open up (on Monday) lower or higher ..."
The Bank of New Zealand said today it maintains a target of US59.30c for the New Zealand dollar in the coming months, but cautioned that the future path of New Zealand interest rates would be a big issue.
Offshore, dealers were awaiting data due in New York's Friday session, with the greenback helped by speculation the figures may turn out much stronger than expected.
Producer prices and retail sales figures for March and, most importantly, the preliminary April University of Michigan consumer sentiment survey, are scheduled for release. Economists expect improvement in all of the data.
The US dollar slipped to 119.73 yen in New Zealand at 5pm (119.93 yen Thursday), while the euro was softer at US$1.0779 (1.0795).
On the crosses at 5pm the kiwi was buying A90.09c (A90.20c at 5pm Thursday), 0.5072 euro (0.5069), 34.81 pence (34.92), 0.7583 Swiss francs (0.7544) and 65.42 yen (65.63).
The Australian dollar was buying $1.1101 ($1.1076).
On the money market, 90-day bills were unchanged at 5.79 per cent, the monetary conditions index was at plus 139 (146) and the trade-weighted index was at 60.14 (60.23).
On the bond market the April 2004 yields were at 5.42 per cent (5.38), the November 2006s were at 5.52 per cent (5.74) and the November 2011s were at 5.92 per cent (5.93).
- NZPA
<i>Currency:</i> Kiwi eases slightly
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