NZ dollar rises as greenback slumps

The New Zealand dollar rose above US74c yesterday as the aussie soared on strong economic data and the United States dollar weakened on poor economic data.

The kiwi was buying US74.02c by 5pm from US73.72c at 8am and US73.11c at 5pm on Friday. It remained below the US74.29c level seen last week.

The Australian dollar rose to US93.14c at 5pm from US91.53c at the same time on Friday. It was buoyed by advertising data indicating a strong job market and by Chinese trade data which showed a jump in imports of iron ore in December.

While the US dollar continued to suffer the after-effects of disappointing payroll data last week, the Asian market was reduced by a holiday in Tokyo.

The US dollar suffered its biggest loss against a basket of six currencies in a month and a half after data last week showed US employers cut 85,000 jobs last month.

Westpac said the key economic report this week was the quarterly survey of business opinion by the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research (NZIER) due today.

After a break of resistance at US73c on January 5, a push higher above US76.30c by the kiwi was now possible, Westpac said.

Mike Jones of BNZ Capital said the kiwi had made a strong start to the year, with a combination of firming risk appetite and a generally weaker US dollar.

If risk appetite remained buoyant and optimism about 2010 continued, he expected a push higher in coming sessions towards the US74.50-75c range.

Against the euro, the kiwi eased to €0.5097 from €0.5107 on Friday. It was at 68.28 at 5pm from 68.18 at 5pm on Friday. It slipped against the strong Australian dollar to A79.45c by 5pm from A79.85c on Friday, while the trade weighted index was up to 66.86 from 66.70.

- NZPA