The New Zealand dollar drifted slightly lower today after spiking higher when the US dollar fell across the board after Friday's disappointing employment data.
At 5pm in Wellington the kiwi was buying US67.33c -- higher than Friday's close of US66.78c -- but down from US67.55c at 8.30am today. The Australian dollar was at US75.63c (US75.03c at 5pm on Friday).
BNZ currency strategist Sue Trinh said today's session was "another day of consolidation following Friday's move higher".
"Having started out reasonably firm the kiwi actually has been drifting back and forth all day."
The US dollar was sold off on the wider forex market when, on Friday night, the US Labour Department reported a paltry 21,000 jobs added in February against economists expectations of 125,000 jobs.
But Ms Trinh said that while the US dollar remained "the directional driver" for the kiwi, focus was moving toward Thursday's Reserve Bank of New Zealand Monetary Policy Statement.
"Our call is that the RB will tighten (increase) by 25 basis points. That should help underpin the kiwi."
The RB's official cash rate is currently 5.25 per cent.
Meanwhile, Ms Trinh said it would be interesting to see how London and New York dealt with the US dollar after Friday's price action, but she expected the kiwi to continue to trade within its current range.
Elsewhere, the euro was at US$1.2364 at 5pm today (US$1.2201 5pm on Friday), while the greenback was fetching 112.16 yen (111.33).
On the crosses the kiwi was fetching A88.99c (A89.01c), 0.5444 euro (0.5474), 75.48 yen (74.35), 36.49 British pence (36.65), and 0.8605 Swiss francs (0.8634).
The trade-weighted index was at 67.58 (67.32), while the monetary conditions index was at plus 706 (689).
The 90-day bank bill yields were at 5.63 per cent (5.66).
The February 2006 yields were at 5.54 per cent (5.61), July 2009 bonds were at 5.73 per cent (5.82), and April 2013s were at 5.84 per cent (5.94).
- NZPA
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