6.00pm
The New Zealand dollar was largely unmoved after a quiet day's trading today, as the market bides time ahead of an interest rate announcement in the US on Wednesday.
At 5pm in Wellington the kiwi was at US63.66c from US63.77c at 5pm on Friday, in a quiet day's trading today.
The aussie was at US69.69c (US70.02c 5pm on Friday).
"The market has been pretty much sidelined today, I guess all eyes are on the Fed later in the week," Westpac's chief currency dealer Basil Payn said.
The US Federal Reserve is making its rates call on Wednesday morning New Zealand time. Although the market consensus is that the Fed is likely to hike rates by 25 basis points, Mr Payn said investors are taking a cautious approach.
"The market has been caught out a few times by trying to second guess it (the Fed), so I think people would rather sit on the sidelines and see what happens first," Mr Payn said.
He said the kiwi was likely to continue finding support around US63.20c to US64.20c in the lead up to Wednesday's announcement.
Mr Payn said the trade surplus data released this morning had had little impact on the kiwi.
Statistics New Zealand recorded a $656 million trade surplus for May, up 22.7 per cent on the same month last year, and well above economists' expectations of a $91 million surplus.
Meanwhile, at 5pm in Wellington, the greenback was buying 107.67 yen (107.38), while the euro was fetching US$1.2154 (US$1.2152).
Against the aussie the kiwi was buying A91.34c (A91.11c),
On the other crosses, the kiwi was buying 34.93 British pence (34.98), 0.5237 euro (0.5250), 68.52 yen (68.48), and 0.7962 Swiss francs (0.7945).
The trade-weighted index was at 64.57 (64.70), while the monetary conditions index was at plus 538 (540).
On the money market, 90-day bank bill yields were at 6.15 per cent (6.16), February 2006 bonds were unchanged at 6.03 per cent, July 2009s were at 6.17 per cent (6.19) and April 2013s were at 6.26 per cent (6.29).
- NZPA
<i>Currency:</i> Kiwi sidelined as market awaits US rates move
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