5.22pm
The New Zealand dollar consolidated through today's session, once again failing to breach the key US69c mark, a broker said.
At 5pm, the kiwi was at US68.60c (from US68.36c at 5pm last night), having opened at US68.68c.
It traded in the narrow range of US68.50c to US68.65c.
BNZ currency strategist Sue Trinh said the kiwi had consolidated after failing to push through the US69c mark.
"Right now what is inhibiting the kiwi's topside is the fact that the market has become very stretched in terms of longs in the kiwi right across the board," Ms Trinh told NZPA today.
"That is preventing the kiwi making sustainable gains through that US69c figure," she said.
Ms Trinh said if those longs were reversed, the kiwi could quickly fall to about US66c.
"That would probably happen over the course of one or two sessions."
Meanwhile, the kiwi reacted little to today's comments by Finance Minister Michael Cullen that he was not comfortable with its high level against the greenback.
"But luckily we do have high commodity prices, and it's muting the effect of the high oil prices," he said.
Ms Trinh said it was unlikely the Reserve Bank (RB) would intervene, as the kiwi's level was "helping them (the RB) do their legwork" at the moment.
"The fact that the kiwi is maintaining its strength should provide some kind of relief for the central bank more than anything," she said.
The Australian dollar was buying US72.70c (US72.40c), the euro was buying US$1.2496 (US$1.2460), and the US dollar was buying 108.64 yen (109.40).
On the crosses the kiwi was buying A94.36c (A94.44c), 0.5489 euros (0.5487), 38.09 British pence (38.06), 74.52 yen (74.80) and 0.8444 Swiss francs (0.8443).
The trade weighted index (TWI) was at 68.85 (68.85) and the monetary conditions index was unchanged at 912.
Ms Trinh said the TWI was being held up by the price action on the kiwi-aussie cross, "which has had a pretty big rally in the past couple of days".
In the money market, 90-day bank bill yields were at 6.75 per cent (6.76).
On the bond market, February 2006s were at 6.15 per cent (6.16), July 2009s were unchanged at 6.03 per cent and April 2013s were at 6.04 per cent (6.06).
- NZPA
<i>Currency:</i> NZ dollar consolidates; little reaction to Cullen's comments
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