Marginally lower New Zealand and Australian dollars were the order of the day as the greenback flexed its muscles.
The kiwi traded in a 20 point range, closing at US41.42c, compared with US41.78c at Wednesday's close. It did slightly better than the subdued aussie dollar which had lost nearly half a cent to close at US51.05c (US51.49c at Wednesday's close).
"There's not much going on, it's pretty directionless trading but the trend at the moment is a slightly stronger (US) dollar," said one dealer.
Dealers expected the kiwi to hover between US41-42c until Christmas. Overnight it was expected to trade between US41.25-50c.
The market ignored current account data which showed a narrowing of the balance of payments deficit to 3.4 per cent of GDP from 4.0 per cent.
"People are winding down for Christmas," said another dealer. The data held "no surprises".
Overseas, the US dollar continued to be robust, buying 128.73 yen while the euro was at US89.88c.
On the crosses the kiwi was buying A81.14c (A81.10 at Wednesday's close) 53.31 yen (53.53), 28.58 pence (28.71), 0.9015 marks (0.9061), 0.6792 Swiss francs (0.6850) and 0.4609 euros (0.4633).
The Australian dollar was buying slightly fewer kiwi at $NZ1.2328, from $NZ1.2331 yesterday.
The trade-weighted index was at 49.81 (50.05), the 90-day bank bills were at 4.85 percent (4.86) and the monetary conditions index eased to minus 897 from minus 872 at yesterday's close.
On the debt market, the March 2002 bonds were flat at 4.75 per cent, as were the April 2004s at 5.54 per cent, the November 2006s were at 6.17 per cent (6.19) and the November 2011s were at 6.63 per cent (6.65).
- NZPA
<i>Currency:</i> Kiwi softens in sympaty with Aussie
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