The New Zealand dollar yesterday rebounded from lows hit on Friday when its was sideswiped by comments from Finance Minister Michael Cullen.
The kiwi slumped half a US cent on Friday to US46.50c after Dr Cullen said in an interview that it was "not desirable that the kiwi dollar continues to rise to levels that would adversely affect the tradeables sector", without giving details.
By 5pm yesterday the kiwi had recovered to US47.10c from Friday's close of US46.70c, while the aussie was at US55.69c from US55.28c at the end of the week.
"It was a bit of a catchup day for the kiwi," one local dealer said.
Trading was thin ahead of a Memorial Day holiday in the US.
Data today showing New Zealand's Indian summer of bigger-than-expected trade surpluses came to an abrupt end in April had little impact on the kiwi, the local dealer said.
Preliminary figures showed the April trade surplus came in at only $19 million instead of a forecast $262 million.
The previous two months had produced much larger surpluses than forecast by economists.
US dollar weakness remained the key driver, the dealer said, following disappointing news on Friday that the US economy did not grow as rapidly as initially reported in the first quarter of 2002.
The kiwi was expected to trade between US 46.90c and US47.30c overnight.
The kiwi was stronger on all major cross-rates by 5pm, trading at A84.60c (A84.35c on Friday), 58.77 yen (58.40), 32.33 pence (32.11), 0.5112 euro (0.5078), and 0.7445 Swiss francs (0.7390).
The aussie was buying $NZ1.1821 ($NZ1.1845).
The monetary conditions index was at minus 287 (minus 322), the trade-weighted index was at 55.13 (54.77) and 90-day bank bills were at 5.88 per cent (5.87).
On the debt market, the April 2004 bond yields were at 6.13 per cent (6.12), the November 2006s steady at 6.67 per cent, as where the November 2011s at 6.79 per cent.
- NZPA
<i>Currency:</i> Kiwi rebounds to US47c
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