The New Zealand dollar was mired in a tight range below US55c today as markets await further news on a possible war with Iraq.
By 5pm the kiwi was at US54.99c - up slightly from its close of US54.88c in holiday-thinned trade on Friday, but little changed from its US54.93c open.
The Australian unit was equally moribund at US59.08c (US59.18c late Friday).
"It's been very quiet today. There was a little bit of a buy-up early on and the rest of the day kiwi has traded in a very tight range of US54.90c/US55.04c," one local dealer said.
"The markets are just sitting around waiting for some developments out of the Middle East to spur them into new ranges.
"Until such time as that happens, we're probably stuck."
He expected the unit to range between US54.85c and US55.20c overnight.
The US dollar was buying 120.43 yen at the close of local trading, from 119.70 here on Friday, while the euro eased a touch to $US1.0805 ($US1.0825).
That carried on from New York trading on Friday when the greenback rose on news that US non-farm payrolls surged in January at the fastest pace in two years, with 143,000 new jobs created - more than twice what economists had expected.
But although it has swung upward in recent trading, lingering geopolitical concerns have made investors uneasy about heavily buying US dollars dealers said.
The kiwi improved slightly on all the major crosses today and at 5pm was buying A93.09c (A92.70c at Friday's close), 0.5090 euro (0.5070), 66.22 yen (65.69), 33.76 pence (33.53) and 0.7464 Swiss francs (0.7441).
The Australian dollar was buying $NZ1.0742 ($NZ1.0783).
New Zealand's trade-weighted index was at 60.68 (60.42), 90-day bank bills were steady at 5.84 per cent and the monetary conditions index was at plus 187 (plus 166).
The April 2004 government bonds were at 5.47 per cent (5.45 at Friday's close), the November 2006s were at 5.55 per cent (5.52), the November 2011s were at 5.89 per cent (5.83), and the April 2013s were at 5.91 per cent (5.85).
- NZPA
<i>Currency:</i> Kiwi rangebound as markets await war news
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