5.37pm
The kiwi bobbed around today, following the greenback as it tracked the US presidential election polls, rising and falling in tandem with the outlook for the candidates.
BNZ currency strategist Sue Trinh said results early on today showed John Kerry in a strong position, which saw the greenback weaken and the kiwi pull to the session high of US68.63c. But as the day wore on and polls swung in favour of President Bush, the greenback rebounded and the kiwi fell to the day's low of US68.27c.
She said the market was just waiting for the certainty of a result, and was keen to avoid the chaos which surrounded the last US presidential election.
At 5pm today the kiwi was buying US68.44c from US68.23c at 5pm yesterday. The aussie was buying US74.57c (US74.47c at 5pm yesterday).
At 5pm in Wellington the euro was buying USUS$1.2705 (USUS$1.2737), and the greenback was buying 106.23 yen (106.54).
On the crosses the kiwi was at A91.78c (A91.62c), 0.5387 euro (0.5356), 37.25 British pence (37.22), 72.70 yen (72.69), and 0.8261 Swiss francs (0.8203).
The NZ dollar trade-weighted index was at 67.78 (67.60) and the monetary conditions index was at plus 832 (819).
On the money market, 90-day bank bill yields were unchanged at 6.74 per cent. February 2006 bond yields were at 6.20 per cent (6.19), July 2009s were at 6.00 per cent (6.01) and April 2013s were at 6.02 per cent (6.03).
- NZPA
<i>Currency:</i> Kiwi waiting on US election
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