The New Zealand dollar emerged from its long weekend to resume its downward path, weakening against most major currencies.
Weak economic data from the United States had helped the kiwi climb back above US63c during the long weekend.
It closed today at US62.85c against its US63.17c opening, but remained slightly above Friday's US62.70c close.
Against the Australian dollar, it eased to A84.40c from its A84.46c opening, while against the yen it fell to 70.68 from 70.85 and the euro to 0.4880 from 0.4896. The trade weighted index fell to 62.62 from its 62.82 opening but was above Friday's 62.58 close.
In major markets, the US dollar inched higher after recovering from a one-year low versus the euro a day earlier, when Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke's pledge to stay vigilant against inflation left the door open for interest rates to rise again later in June.
Speaking at an international monetary conference in Washington, Dr Bernanke suggested he was concerned about core inflation and the possibility that it could pierce the upper end of the range he sees as consistent with price stability.
The possibility that the Fed will raise rates for the 17th straight time to 5.25 per cent sparked a round of dollar short covering, after weak US jobs data on Friday had prompted selling on expectations that the central bank could pause raising rates.
But gains were limited as some investors worried Dr Bernanke's comments did not guarantee a rate rise was in the bag this month.
Locally, economists universally believe the Reserve Bank will leave interest rates unchanged at Thursday's quarterly monetary conditions review. They also doubt the hard line rhetoric from bank governor Alan Bollard will change from hit previous couple of utterances.
ANZ Bank said it expected tougher talk on inflation concerns to make the road down for the New Zealand dollar "extremely difficult".
The following are Reuters currency rates:
5pm today 5pm Friday
NZ dlr/US dlr US62.85 US62.70c
NZ dlr/Aust dlr A84.40 A84.02c
NZ dlr/euro 0.4875 0.4896
NZ dlr/yen 70.68 70.65
NZ dlr/stg 0.3360 0.3362
NZ TWI 62.62 62.58
Australian dollar US74.48c US74.63c
Euro/US dollar US1.2896 US1.2815
US dollar/yen 112.38 112.64
- NZPA
<i>Currency:</i> NZ dollar loses ground against all majors
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