KEY POINTS:
The New Zealand dollar remained at one-month lows today, as it was sold off against the yen ahead of a possible Japanese interest rate hike.
At 5.30pm, the kiwi was at US68.60c, having been above US70.75c on Thursday. At 5pm on Friday it was worth US69.14c.
Against the Aussie, the kiwi fell to A87.94c from A88.31c on Friday.
The currencies of commodity exporters such as Australia and New Zealand were hurt last week by sharp declines in raw materials prices.
In addition, the US dollar received a boost from stronger-than-expected job numbers on Friday.
Bank of New Zealand currency strategist Danica Hampton said the kiwi hit a low today of US68.51c, a touch below the overnight low of US68.55c.
"We've seen a bit of kiwi-yen selling out of Japan, but the Japanese market has been pretty quiet," Ms Hampton said.
"Now we're really keeping an eye on commodity markets to see if they stabilise, or the jitteriness that we saw last week continues."
In the meantime, the kiwi would struggle to break above US69.50c, and would be supported around US67.50c by the threat of a Reserve Bank interest rate hike.
"It really started to look quite top-heavy after the surge we saw in late December, and at US71c it really looked expensive, so we've seen a correction to that," Ms Hampton said.
The yen is benefiting from growing expectations that the Bank of Japan could bump up interest rates as early as next week.
Meanwhile, the US dollar steadied against currencies other than the yen. It has held onto gains made after a report showing surprising growth in US jobs, which led the market to scale back forecasts that the Federal Reserve will cut rates in coming months.
The following are Reuters currency rates:
5.30pm today 5pm Friday
NZ dlr/US dlr US68.60c US69.14c
NZ dlr/Aust dlr A87.94c A88.31c
NZ dlr/euro 0.5276 0.5289
NZ dlr/yen 81.25 81.71
NZ dlr/stg 35.56p 35.67p
NZ TWI 68.05 68.41
Australian dollar US77.99c US78.30c
Euro/US dollar 1.2999 1.3072
US dollar/yen 118.44
- NZPA