Dollar holding at around US74c

The NZ dollar was buying around US74c by today's local open, having fallen from near US75c on Friday afternoon as the greenback recovered some of its losses.

News of a large quarterly loss at Bank of America and flagging consumer confidence in the United States dulled investor demand for higher-yielding, higher-risk currencies.

Evidence that United States consumers and some top US banks are still struggling under a mountain of debt afforded investors a chance to book profits on the US dollar's slide.

By 8am today the NZ dollar was buying US74.02c from US74.62c at 5pm on Friday, having fallen towards US73.50c early on Saturday before rebounding.

ANZ said that after looking like it was going to take out US75c, the NZ dollar succumbed to selling pressure which saw it break through the US74c support level.

A light domestic data calendar this week meant the NZ dollar would largely track moves in the Australian dollar, with the market starting to contemplate the possibility of a 50-basis point move by the Reserve Bank of Australia in early November.

The NZ dollar was little changed against the aussie from Friday evening at A80.72c by the local open today.

The Australian dollar remained ahead in the race between the two currencies and it should be only a matter of time before support around A80.33c was thoroughly tested, ANZ said.

The kiwi was down to 0.4967 euro by 8am today from 0.4996 at 5pm on Friday, and also slipped to 67.28 yen from 67.69. The trade weighted index was 66.39 at 8am from 66.78 at 5pm on Friday.

- NZPA