KEY POINTS:
The New Zealand dollar was above US76c early today, having climbed to that level on Saturday morning as the greenback fell despite solid United States employment data.
By 8am today, the kiwi was at US76.11c from US75.61c at 5pm on Friday.
Initially, the greenback rose early Saturday (NZT) after data showed September US jobs growth of 110,000, the highest since May, and upwardly revised numbers for August and July.
But the rally petered out ahead of the long Columbus Day holiday weekend, with the employment figures not enough to convince investors the US economy was growing fast enough to keep the Federal Reserve from cutting interest rates again.
The ANZ bank said today that the NZ dollar had recovered easily from a test of support once sentiment turned against the greenback.
"It finished the week relatively stronger by default and ably assisted by Australasian moves in general," ANZ said.
Against the Japanese currency, the NZ dollar was near a two-month high at 89.01 yen around 8am today, from 88.05 on Friday evening.
ANZ said the cross was set to move higher as the Bank of Japan was unlikely to change Japanese interest rates when it met this week.
The kiwi was also buying 0.5384 yen this morning from 0.5348 at 5pm on Friday.
It was weaker against the Australian dollar, buying A84.82c at 8am from A85.09c. The trade weighted index was 71.51 at 8am from 71.12 at 5pm Friday.
- NZPA
