KEY POINTS:
The New Zealand dollar held its ground as the greenback slipped to near a 15-year low against a basket of currencies today.
Trading was slow with financial markets in Tokyo closed for a national holiday.
But after trading tightly the kiwi closed at US74.42c, right on Friday's close, consolidating a 4.4 per cent gain against the US dollar last week.
The Australasian currencies have bounced back on the back of last week's aggressive interest rate cut in the US, which weakened the greenback and drove investors back to riskier assets.
"The New Zealand dollar continues to the major benefactor from improving risk appetite out there," BNZ chief currency dealer Mike Symonds said.
A smattering of local data, particularly Friday's second-quarter GDP figures, would be watched closely, "but certainly the wider global influences that have dominated the kiwi in recent times will again be the key".
The Australian currency slipped a little today to US86.67c, from Friday's close of US86.85c.
On the kiwi-aussie cross, the New Zealand dollar was buying A85.87c compared with A85.70c and it was a little stronger against the yen at 85.63 (85.53 yen on Friday), but slipped against the euro and pound.
Meanwhile, dealers were watching to see if the US dollar would break through its all-time low of 78.19 on its trade-weighted index in 1992, a development that could ignite a further sell-off in the currency.
It slipped to 78.398 today, and fell to a record low versus the euro. The single European currency edged up to $1.4101, just shy of the record peak of $1.4121 hit on Friday.
The dollar fell to 115.09 yen but has rebounded from a low of 113.98 yen last week.
Reuters currency rates
5pm today 5pm Friday
NZ dlr/US dlr US74.42c US74.42c
NZ dlr/Aust dlr A85.87c A85.70c
NZ dlr/euro 0.5278 0.5283
NZ dlr/yen 85.63 85.53
NZ dlr/stg 36.75p 37.02p
NZ TWI 70.27 70.29
Australian dollar US86.67c US86.85c
Euro/US dollar 1.4101 1.4086
US dollar/yen 115.07 114.92
- NZPA
