The New Zealand and Australian dollars fell like dominos yesterday after the yen dropped against the greenback.
The yen sank as low as 106.96USc, but closed slightly up at 107.12USc.
That caused the aussie to weaken, closing yesterday at 59.05USc from 59.61USc, which in turn led to the kiwi softening from 46.34USc on Wednesday to 46.12USc at yesterday's close.
BNZ forex manager Greg Ball said the kiwi had been under pressure yesterday and had traded as low as 45.95USc.
"That's a continuation of the selling we saw in New York.
"It's based around Asia more than anything else - Asia has been quite weak with yen being sold.
"The [US] dollar-yen [cross-rate] was above 107USc and broke through some important levels.
"So we saw Australia take the ball and run - the aussie has been as low as 58.89USc.
"All the currencies, with the exception of the US dollar, seemed to fall out of favour. We're seeing all of these currencies blocked together; they're being sold off as a group.
"There'll be further weakness - we're approaching very important technical support levels in the kiwi - around 45.90USc - and if they break we may reinvestigate the lows of old - 44.60USc in the kiwi."
The currency markets would also be looking to the non-farm payrolls data to be released in the United States tonight (NZ time).
- NZPA
Kiwi hit by domino effect
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