KEY POINTS:
The New Zealand dollar remained below its recent year-high despite a better-than-expected monthly trade deficit.
By 5pm, the kiwi was at US70.59c from US70.90c late yesterday. In contrast, it gained against the Australian dollar, to A89.26c from yesterday's A88.89c.
One dealer said the kiwi saw choppy trading between US70.47c and US70.84c today, ending near its local opening level.
"A reasonably good (overseas merchandise) trade number saw the kiwi supported, and there's been not else other than that. US dollar's been sold a wee bit out here, which has given the kiwi late support in the day," he said.
"We've seen pretty good volumes again today, a bit of offshore interest particularly in the kiwi-yen, and a wee bit in the Aussie-kiwi.
"The market seems to feel that around the US70.85c level is probably toppish of the range at the moment and probably the bottom's around US70.40c."
November's trade deficit of $785 million was below the median of economists' forecasts in a Reuters poll, for a deficit of $837 million.
The November year trade deficit was $6.01 billion, compared with expectations of $6.05 billion.
While an improvement on forecasts, today's data did little to clear the picture on interest rates. Economists are mixed about whether the Reserve Bank of NZ will increase the Official Cash Rate later this month, from 7.25 per cent, given a recent bout of stronger-than-expected data.
The US dollar steadied against the yen and the euro today after rallying the previous session on a survey that showed a surprising expansion in US factory activity in December.
The dollar jumped on Wednesday after the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) said its manufacturing index climbed into expansion mode, to 51.4 from 49.5 in November.
The euro was nearly flat at US$1.3172 after falling 0.9 per cent on Wednesday, its biggest one-day decline since mid-July of last year.
Reuters currency rates:
5.10pm today 5pm yesterday
NZ dlr/US dlr US70.59c US70.90c
NZ dlr/Aust dlr A89.26c A88.89c
NZ dlr/euro 0.5357 0.5336
NZ dlr/yen 84.26 84.18
NZ dlr/stg 36.14p 35.90p
NZ TWI 69.64 69.57
Australian dollar US79.09c US79.77c
Euro/US dollar 1.3174 1.3288
US dollar/yen 119.37 118.74
- NZPA