Dollar gains on back of weak USD and pound

The local currency was trading at US71.11c at 5pm yesterday from US71.19c at 8 am and US70.77c the previous day. Photo / Greg Bowker

The New Zealand dollar consolidated yesterday after strong gains on the back of a weaker US dollar and British pound, weighed by market jitters about US president-elect Donald Trump's plans and Brexit.

The local currency was trading at US71.11c at 5pm yesterday from US71.19c at 8 am and US70.77c the previous day. The trade-weighted index rose to 78.26 from 77.90 on Thursday.

"It [the kiwi] got a strong lift early Friday after markets continued to react to Trump's press conference but it has spent the day consolidating," said Westpac senior foreign exchange strategist Imre Speizer.

The US dollar was hit after US president-elect Donald Trump offered few details on infrastructure and tax reform in his hour-long press conference Wednesday in the US.

It did get some respite yesterday when US Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said inflation was getting close to the Fed's target and the economy was doing quite well, Speizer said. Weaker-than-expected domestic electronic card sales in December may also have taken some of the wind out of the local currency's sails.

The kiwi continued to gain against the British pound, trading at 58.47p from 57.94p on Thursday - the highest since early November as investors fret about what the economic fallout of Brexit will be.

It was at A95c from A94.79c on Thursday. Against the Chinese yuan, the kiwi rose to 4.9055 yuan from to 4.8896 yuan twenty-four hours earlier. It lifted against the Japanese yen, to 81.80 from 80.99. It was trading at 67.03c versus 66.70c.

New Zealand's two-year swap rate rose 6 basis points at 2.38 per cent, while the 10-year swap rate rose 4 basis points to 3.37 per cent.