The New Zealand dollar, hardly a firebrand recently, stalled yesterday after the release of key wage and trade data.
At 5pm the kiwi traded at US46.34c, down from Friday's close of US46.54c, while the aussie slipped to US53.85c from US54.03c on Friday.
Murray Hindley, ANZ Investment Bank chief foreign exchange dealer, said the kiwi softened yesteday morning after Statistics New Zealand released the Quarterly Employment Survey, which was weaker than expected, and the Labour Cost Index.
The QES showed total hourly earnings dropping by an average 0.1 per cent, compared with economists' forecasts of a slight 0.8 per cent rise.
Also released yesterday were New Zealand's June quarter export figures, which Statistics NZ said remained unchanged on the previous quarter at $8.071 billion.
The kiwi traded in a range of US46.29/42c.
"It weakened off a little bit after the QES and the merchandise trade export numbers, but really it's been very quiet" Mr Hindley said.
"Since that came out the range has been basically US46.30/36c."
A holiday in the key Sydney markets had also removed some of the volume, although Monday was a typically quiet session.
Mr Hindley picked the kiwi to trade between US46.20/50c overnight.
Offshore, the US dollar hovered near its lowest levels in a week versus the yen in Asia, following a weak US employment report on Friday.
While the greenback remained weighed down by its recent troubles - a series of business scandals, falls in share prices and the latest signs of a slowdown in the US economy - overall sentiment was mixed as dealers were in two minds whether the worst was over for US shares.
On the crosses at 5pm, the kiwi traded at A86.05c (86.07c at Friday's close), 55.30 yen (55.37), 29.55 pence (29.78), 0.6847 Swiss francs (0.6828), and 0.4716 euro (0.4714).
The aussie was trading at $NZ1.1622 ($NZ1.1619).
On the money market, 90-day bills were at 5.87 per cent (5.91), the trade-weighted index was at 53.07 (53.19) and the monetary conditions index eased slightly to minus 479 (minus 464).
On the debt market, the April 2004 bonds were at 5.48 per cent (5.52), the November 2006 bonds were at 5.93 per cent (6.09), and the November 2011 bonds were at 6.25 per cent (6.34).
- NZPA
<i>Currency:</i> Kiwi restricted by wage data, Aussie holiday
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