The New Zealand dollar spent most of today travelling in a narrow 5-point band but may head higher overnight.
By 5pm the kiwi rose to US58.87c from US58.50c last night, and the aussie was at US65.84c from US65.49c yesterday.
One local dealer said the kiwi traded between US58.79/94c today "and the reality is it spent 99 per cent of it between the US58.83/88c level. The day has been very, very quiet both in the kiwi and in the aussie.
"It's reflecting a little bit of uncertainty. They've both performed very well in the last 48 hours and are finishing today towards the upper end of those bands but they're waiting for a bit of direction from the US dollar," he said.
"If the US dollar continues to weaken overnight then they might have a go higher but they'll need some sort of impetus to push it up there because the market's nervous -- we're getting up to pretty high levels at this stage."
He picked a range of US58.60c and US59.10 overnight, although any break above US59c was unlikely to be sustainable.
"I don't think anything's too convincing at these levels, I think if we get up (US59.00c) we may have a quick run up to US59.50c...nothing's really trending, it's all still wishy washy and pretty thin trading."
In Tokyo the US dollar stayed under pressure against the euro after sharp falls in the US Treasury market undermined sentiment, following an upbeat US retail sales report boosted inflation fears.
In Wellington at 5pm the euro was at US$1.1330 from US$1.1263 last night, while the US dollar was slightly firmer against the Japanese currency at 119.28 yen (119.03 last night).
On the crosses at 5pm the kiwi was buying A89.42c (A89.32c last night), 70.22 yen (69.64), 36.60 pence (36.56), 0.8039 Swiss francs (0.8018), and 0.5196 euros (0.5194).
The Australian dollar eased slightly against the kiwi to buy $1.1185 ($1.1198).
The monetary conditions index was at plus 308 (285), the trade-weighted index was at 63.03 (62.75) and 90-day bank bill yields were at 5.14 per cent (5.13).
The February 2005 yields were at 5.29 per cent (5.26), the November 2006s were 5.52 per cent (5.50), and the November 2011s were at 5.96 per cent (5.92).
- NZPA
<i>Currency:</i> Kiwi remains on perch, may move higher
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