The New Zealand dollar continued to fall through the night, as the greenback and yen were boosted by safe-haven flows on investor caution about corporate earnings.
By 8am today the kiwi was buying US58.26c having trended down since reaching a week-high around US59.30c a little over 24 hours earlier.
The wariness by investors pressured the euro and currencies that carry higher interest rates such as the Australian and NZ dollars, which tend to benefit when there is risk appetite in the market.
A United States government report showed sales at US retailers unexpectedly fell 1.1 per cent in March, snapping two months of increases.
The dismal number fueled worries about a shaky global economy and helped reverse some of the recent positive sentiment in markets.
The kiwi was down across the board, dropping to 0.4388 euro at the local open from 0.4427 at 5pm yesterday, and to 57.59 yen from 59.04.
Against the Australian dollar the kiwi slipped to A80.46c at 8am from A81.09c at the local close. The trade weighted index fell to 57.71 at 8am from 58.45 at 5pm.
ANZ bank said plenty of sellers of both the NZ and Australian dollars had helped provide a decent correction.
Moves higher for the NZ dollar today should be out of the question, ANZ said.
A reversal of fortune which saw US equity markets fall, and far too much global discussion on the merits of the carry trade were enough to thwart topside moves.
- NZPA
NZ dollar falls as investors get jitters
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