NZ dollar in small rebound

After last week's poor performance, the New Zealand dollar rebounded slightly overnight amid rumours from the United States of the upcoming reappointment of Fed chairman Ben Bernanke and suggestion of new stimulus measures.

Risk averse investors eyeing weaker equities markets last week led to a bounce in the greenback, though this week President Barack Obama's stimulus measures, to be announced in his State of the Union address and aimed at helping the US middle classes, cheered sentiment.

"The coming week is packed full of event risk, which should help steer the direction of currency markets. The Senate is expected to vote on whether to reappoint Bernanke for a second term and Obama will give his State of Union speech on Thursday. We're also slap bang in the middle of the US corporate earnings season - companies like Apple, Amazon, Boeing and Microsoft are all reporting this week," BNZ senior strategist Danica Hampton said.

The New Zealand dollar was trading at US71.44c, after dipping to US71.28c about 4am from US71.55c.

Against the aussie, the kiwi was trading at A78.94, from A78.90c at 5pm yesterday. The dollar was up slightly against the yen, at 64.47 from 64.46 yesterday, but fell to 43.98p against the pound, from 44.41.

- NZPA