The New Zealand dollar continued to ease today with the Australian dollar and Finance Minister Michael Cullen providing downward momentum.
At 5pm the kiwi was trading at US58.75c from US59.50c on Friday, while the aussie was at US67.13c, down from its US68.02c close on Friday.
The kiwi lost more than 1 US cent during the weekend, largely driven by comments from Dr Cullen in London.
Dr Cullen said he was unhappy with the kiwi's high level as it was hurting New Zealand exporters, although he declined to say what he thought was an appropriate rate.
Westpac chief currency dealer Basil Payn said the kiwi traded between US58.68c and US59.07c today.
"It was a reasonably quiet day, we opened up pretty close to the US59c mark, spent most of the morning there and then drifted down during the course of the afternoon.
"There's been large selling interest in the aussie dollar, it's pushed the aussie dollar lower which has weighed a bit on the kiwi," Mr Payn said.
"Support's still around US58.60c, and resistance around US59.20c."
However, he picked it to trade overnight within a narrower 40-point range, topped by US59.10c.
The yen firmed during the Tokyo session, edging toward last week's three-year highs against the US dollar again as the market awaited a string of Japanese economic data due out this week that could refuel bullishness on Japanese equities.
In Wellington by 5pm the euro eased to US$1.1447, from US$1.1478 late on Friday, while the US dollar also lost ground to trade at 111.25 yen (111.98).
On the crosses the kiwi was at A87.49c (A87.52c on Friday), 65.36 yen (66.66), 35.45 pence (35.90), 0.7921 Swiss Francs (0.8009), and 0.5133 euro (0.5184).
The Australian dollar was buying US$1.1429 ($1.1428).
The monetary conditions index was at plus 197 (256), the trade-weighted index was at 61.61 (62.30), and 90-day bank bill yields were at 5.17 per cent (5.19).
The February 2005 Government bond yields were at 5.18 per cent (5.20), the November 2006s were at 5.38 per cent (5.42), and the November 2011s were at 5.68 per cent (5.74).
- NZPA
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