KEY POINTS:
The New Zealand dollar peeled off its session highs after rising almost 1.5 per cent in offshore trading due to an easing greenback.
Fears that an interest rate cut in the US early next year and poor US durable goods data pushed the New Zealand dollar to a peak today of US68.24c, its highest level since mid-February.
But softening local building consent figures, plus weaker than expected trade data out of Australia, saw the kiwi retreat to a close of US67.86c.
However, that was still well up on yesterday's close of US67.02c.
Murray Hindley, ANZ's chief foreign exchange dealer, said trading had been choppy and volumes were reasonable.
Tonight he expected support around US67.65c.
He said the key focus tomorrow would be Australian retail sales data.
"There's more US data to come over the course of the week which could keep the dollar under some pressure and probably the kiwi supported as a result."
Against the aussie, the kiwi rose to A86.72c from A86.04c at 5pm yesterday, while the trade-weighted index jumped to 66.72 from 66.05.
Offshore, the aussie dollar strengthened to a 20-month high of US78.45c before easing to a close here of US78.25c.
Currency markets brushed aside hawkish comments by US Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke to focus on the mostly soft US data.
The euro hovered below a breakthrough US$1.32 level to close locally at $1.3189. The euro has not been above $1.32 since March last year.
Reuters currency rates:
5pm today - 5pm yesterday
NZ dlr/US dlr US68.86c - US67.02c
NZ dlr/Aust dlr A86.72c - A86.04c
NZ dlr/euro 0.5146 - 0.5099
NZ dlr/yen 78.58 - 77.72
NZ dlr/stg 34.77p - 34.56p
NZ TWI 66.72 - 66.05
Australian dollar US78.25c - US77.91c
Euro/US dollar 1.3189 - 1.3146
US dollar/yen 115.79 - 115.95
- NZPA