The kiwi continued to hover under US66c today, as the market looks towards a speech from Alan Greenspan in the United States tonight to lend direction to trading.
At 5pm in Wellington the kiwi was buying US65.60c from (US65.99c at 5pm yesterday) having traded in a US65.35c to US66.09c range. A Wellington dealer said the peak was hit in very early trading this morning, after which a regular seller pushed the kiwi down.
He said while there could be some more downside in the kiwi overnight, over the next couple of sessions it was likely to nudge up towards the US66c mark again.
Meanwhile at 5pm the Australian dollar was buying US73.23c (US73.41c at 5pm yesterday).
In the US tonight, Federal Reserve chairman Mr Greenspan will deliver the Fed's twice yearly report on monetary policy to the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee.
The market will look to his comments for clues to what the Fed has in store for US interest rates.
"There's been very little movement in euro and sterling today -- the market has been basically on hold ahead of his (Mr Greenspan's) testimony tonight and everyone will be focused on the wording he produces," the dealer said.
He said if Mr Greenspan reiterated that the Fed would take a measured approach to any future rate hikes, it would probably result in a sell off of the greenback.
At 5pm in Wellington, the euro was buying US$1.2436 (US$1.2456), while the greenback was buying 108.67 yen (108.16).
On the crosses, the kiwi was buying A89.58c (A89.90c last night), 35.17 British pence (35.19), 0.5275 euro (0.5298), 71.29 yen (71.37), and 0.8064 Swiss francs (0.8080).
The monetary conditions index was at plus 620 (646), while the trade-weighted index was at 65.71 (65.97).
Ninety-day bank bill yields were at 6.26 per cent (6.25 per cent), February 2006 bonds were unchanged at 5.98 per cent, July 2009s were at 6.00 per cent (6.03 per cent) and April 2013s were at 6.08 per cent (6.10).
- NZPA
<i>NZ stocks:</i> Kiwi holds steady, market waits on Greenspan comments
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