5.55pm
The kiwi was little changed today despite a strong showing from the greenback.
At 5pm in Wellington the New Zealand dollar was buying US62.60c from US63.01c at 5pm on Friday, having traded between US62.44c and US$62.66c during the day.
A Wellington dealer expected the kiwi to trade in a range of US$62.30c - US$62.90c during tonight's offshore session.
The Australian dollar was buying US73.05c at 5pm today (from US73.39c at 5pm on Friday).
The dealer said the market was fairly quiet today, partly because much of Australia was on a public holiday.
He said there was also a "wait and see" attitude in the lead-up to Thursday's interest rate announcement by the Reserve Bank of New Zealand.
The Reserve Bank has its Official Cash Rate Review (OCR) on Thursday and economists are divided on whether the bank will raise rates by a quarter of a percentage point or leave them unchanged at 5.25 per cent.
But the dealer said the US dollar remains the main driver for the kiwi in the bigger picture.
The US dollar hit a five-month high against the euro today, as the market focused its attention to the chances of a near-term rise in US interest rates.
At 5pm the euro was buying US$1.1794 (from US$1.1924 at 5pm Friday) having traded as low as US$1.1760 during today's session.
On Friday the US released durable goods orders data which was way above economists' forecasts and yet another favourable economic indicator pointing to a potential rate change.
Elsewhere, finance chiefs from the world's seven richest nations (G7) met over the weekend in Washington where they agreed the global economic outlook had brightened significantly.
Meanwhile, the US dollar was buying 108.93 yen at 5pm in Wellington today (109.48 yen).
On the crosses, the kiwi was buying A85.70c (A85.86c), 0.5308 euro (0.5284), 35.30 British pence (35.51), 68.19 yen (68.96), and 0.8256 Swiss francs (0.8241).
The trade-weighted index was at 63.75 (64.02), while the monetary conditions index was at plus 414 (431).
On the debt market, 90-day bank bill yields were at 5.63 per cent (5.59).
The February 2006 yields were at 5.63 per cent (5.58), July 2009s were at 5.95 per cent (5.89), and April 2013s were at 6.14 per cent (6.08).
- NZPA
<i>Currency:</i> Kiwi little changed despite strong greenback
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