The New Zealand dollar traded in an extremely tight range today as it looked for direction from its United States counterpart, a currency expert said.
The kiwi closed at US58.32c at 5pm today, slightly down on the US58.38c it finished at after Friday's trading.
BNZ currency strategist Sue Trinh said the kiwi had traded between US58.25c and US58.38c today.
"The market's really just bracing itself for the flood of data that's coming out (of the US) later this week," Ms Trinh told NZPA today.
"There's not many kiwi-specific drivers at the moment so most of the direction will be determined by the US dollar side of the ledger," she said.
Data due to be released in the US later this week included: industrial production and capacity utilisation, second quarter current account deficit, and also the consumer price index.
Worse than expected US retail sales data on Friday provided another setback for the greenback, following recent disappointing unemployment data.
At 5pm, the aussie was buying US66.23c (US65.96c), while the euro rose to US$1.1276 from US$1.1188 late on Friday.
The US dollar was stronger against the Japanese currency, buying 117.32 yen (117.06).
On the crosses at 5pm the kiwi was at A88.05c (A88.50c), 68.42 yen (68.31), 36.36 pence (36.57), 0.8055 Swiss francs (0.8094), and 0.5170 euro (0.5216).
The Australian dollar was buying $1.1355 ($1.1304).
The monetary conditions index was at plus 247 (264), the trade-weighted index was at 62.24 (62.45) and 90-day bank bill yields were at 5.14 per cent (5.14).
The February 2005 yields were at 5.34 per cent (5.37), the November 2006s were at 5.58 per cent (5.63), and the November 2011s were at 5.91 per cent (5.97).
- NZPA
<i>Currency:</i> Kiwi trades in tight range ahead of key US data
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