KEY POINTS:
The New Zealand dollar recovered from early weakness today, as it overcame softer than expected quarterly retail sales growth and weaker US shares.
By 5pm, the kiwi was at US76.47c, little changed from US76.55c late yesterday afternoon but above the session low of US75.93c. Against the Australian dollar, the kiwi was up a touch at A84.97c from A84.82c yesterday.
"Risk aversion still seems to be the flavour of the month and obviously with the Dow closing weaker we saw some weakness in the kiwi in the morning session, coupled with weaker retail sales data," said ANZ Investment Bank chief foreign exchange dealer Murray Hindley.
"In the afternoon session it's pared back all its early morning losses so it's going to close basically where we started today."
The kiwi was finding support just below US76c, he said.
Retail sales for the September quarter rose a smaller than expected 0.2 per cent, below forecasts of 0.4 per cent, although sales for the month of September beat forecasts with a 1 per cent jump.
The Reserve Bank is expected to leave interest rates steady until late next year, when the majority of economists polled by Reuters forecast a 25 basis point cut.
Currencies such as the kiwi and Japanese yen have seesawed in recent sessions on the back of volatile trading in equities, which are considered an indicator of risk appetite.
On Wall Street overnight, US stocks fell for their fifth down day in six, on investor doubts that the previous day's big rally is sustainable in the face of a slowing economy and lingering concerns about the subprime mortgage crisis.
Reuters currency rates
5pm today 5pm yesterday
NZ dlr/US dlr US76.47c US76.55
NZ dlr/Aust dlr A84.97c A84.82c
NZ dlr/euro 0.5210 0.5222
NZ dlr/yen 85.14 85.05
NZ dlr/stg 37.17p 36.84p
NZ TWI 70.48 70.46
Australian dollar US89.99c US90.23c
Euro/US dollar 1.4679 1.4654
US dollar/yen 111.29 111.13
- NZPA