KEY POINTS:
After slipping a cent against the greenback last night, the New Zealand dollar had a mundane time of it today.
From below US78.30c shortly after midnight it climbed to around US78.75c by about 9am, but from late morning the kiwi meandered between US78.55c and US78.30c. Around 5pm today it was buying US78.48c.
The US dollar had made gains after data prompted investors to scale back expectations for the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates sharply at a policy meeting this month.
That data included US producer prices climbing by a faster-than-expected 1.1 per cent in March, and a gauge of New York manufacturing activity that rose in April.
But today the greenback slipped against the yen, hurt by caution ahead of quarterly earnings announcements by major US banks and worries about the turmoil in credit markets.
The NZ dollar was sold off against the yen by margin traders, while also being stung by the aftermath of yesterday's inflation data with its implications that interest rates will be on hold for some time.
By 5pm today the kiwi was buying 79.77 yen, slightly down on the 79.80 at today's local open.
The kiwi gave up more ground against the Australian dollar during the day, staying near a five month-low and buying A84.72c at today's local close from A84.93c at 8am today.
It was also soft against the euro, having last night briefly touched an eight-month low. Opening locally at 0.4973 euro, the kiwi was slightly down to 0.4967 by 5pm.
Reuters currency rates:
NZ dlr/US dlr US78.48c US79.20
NZ dlr/Aust dlr A84.72c A85.25c
NZ dlr/euro 0.4967 0.5005
NZ dlr/yen 79.77 80.25
NZ dlr/stg 40.00p 40.10p
NZ TWI 69.81 70.32
Australian dollar US92.64c US92.54c
Euro/US dollar 1.5799 1.5822
US dollar/yen 101.66 101.32
- NZPA
