KEY POINTS:
The New Zealand dollar firmed today but commentators said it was "looking tired" and financial diaries for this week are bereft of events likely to ignite major movement.
Against the US dollar, the kiwi was buying US72.64c at 5pm, up from US72.57c soon after 8am today and US72.55c on Friday afternoon.
It was helped by weakness in the US dollar on Friday after a surprisingly weak report on existing home sales and the US is unlikely to provide direction tomorrow because that market has its Memorial Day holiday on Monday.
The ANZ bank today said this week would start quietly with holidays also in Britain and Germany.
The New Zealand dollar looked set to be trapped within ranges, though technically it remained in a downtrend.
The topside for the New Zealand dollar looked to be solidly capped at US72.80c, but should the support level of US72.36c be broken a quick move to below US72c could be expected.
BNZ said concerns about the situation in North Korea over the weekend weighed on the yen, helping currencies gain on the yen cross.
"For the coming week it is important to keep an eye on global equities markets for a barometer of carry trade sentiment," BNZ said.
Against the Australian dollar, the kiwi was buying A88.67c from A88.64c around 8.10am today and A88.55c at 4.30pm on Friday.
The New Zealand dollar was also buying 0.5399 euro from 0.5409, and 88.34 yen from 87.86. The trade-weighted index was at 70.94 from 70.87.
ANZ said that while the New Zealand dollar cross against its Australian counterpart remained trapped within recent ranges it could only be a matter of time before extremities either higher or lower were tested.
- NZPA