The kiwi ended today's local session fractionally lower after recovering from a 20 basis point dip on comments by Reserve Bank Deputy Governor Adrian Orr about the bank's currency intervention plans.
At 5pm in Wellington, the kiwi was buying US65.07c from US65.78c at 5pm last night, having traded between US64.73c and US65.10c in. The Australian dollar was buying US74.38c (US75.18c at 5pm yesterday).
The kiwi had been trading lower against the US dollar this morning after senior European Central Bank officials made comments that served to weaken the euro.
However, BNZ currency strategist Sue Trinh said the market was initially taken aback by reports of comments made by Mr Orr later in the morning to a meat industry conference.
"The kiwi was pushed down about 10 or 20 points on the initial headlines... the first headline shocked a few people offshore."
Ms Trinh said the kiwi was sold off by about 20 points but ground higher "as the market realised there was not much new in that speech".
"So its pretty much back where it was before those comments came out," Ms Trinh said.
She said tomorrow would be a big day for the local currency, with gross domestic product (GDP) figures due out.
"That will be important for the kiwi's near term trading direction and especially the RBs monetary policy outlook in the next couple of months."
Ms Trinh said the kiwi was not much affected by today's better than expected balance of payments figure.
She said the kiwi was looking "technically rather weak" just at the moment and it could soon test the mid US64c level.
On the crosses, the kiwi was buying A87.49c (A87.51c at 5pm last night), 0.5364 euro (0.5340), 69.02 yen (70.21), 35.66 British pence (35.58), and 0.8307 Swiss francs (0.8282).
Meanwhile, the US dollar was buying 106.07 yen at 5pm in Wellington (106.74) and the euro was at US$1.2130 (US$1.2320).
The trade-weighted index was at 65.21 (65.55), while the monetary conditions index was at 516 (535).
Ninety-day bank bill yields were unchanged at 5.53 per cent (5.51).
The February 2006 yields were unchanged at 5.28 per cent, July 2009s were at 5.51 per cent (5.50), and April 2013s were at 5.66 per cent (5.65).
- NZPA
<i>Currency:</i> Kiwi slips and recovers on mention of intervention intentions
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