NZ currency: Dollar trades in a range

The New Zealand dollar traded in a narrow range at lower levels today and investors kept a wary eye on Wall Street's performance.

The NZ dollar was at US73.32c by 5pm from US73.26c at 8am and US74.03c at 5pm yesterday. It spent most of the day in a tight range between US73.13c to US73.44c today.

Westpac currency strategist Imre Speizer said there was "not a sausage" of reaction to comments about the currency by Prime Minister John Key.

Mr Key said he was concerned about the strength of the NZ dollar. "There is that concern where we end with a position where we choke off that growth in exports that we wanted to see in terms of getting a balanced recovery," Mr Key told CNBC on the sidelines of the Asia Pacific Economic Forum meeting, Reuters reported.

Mr Speizer said there was nothing new in the remarks.

He said a bigger concern was whether Wall Street would recover after a wobble last night.

"Last night they were sold off unexpectedly and that frightened a few people. A follow through tonight would be bearish for the week ahead," he said.

He said a trading range established for six months on the Australian cross had been broken and the NZ dollar was likely to continue to weaken against the Australian dollar.

It was A79.15c at 5pm from A79.20c at the same time yesterday.

The NZ dollar was also little changed at 0.4930 euro at the local close from 0.4936 and was 66.10 yen from 66.43 yen yesterday.

The trade weighted index was 65.53 at 5pm from 65.85 yesterday.

- NZPA