The New Zealand dollar spent most of the overnight session above US82c, boosted by broad greenback weakness and a statement from the Reserve Bank of Australia yesterday that was more neutral than expected.
The New Zealand dollar spent most of the overnight session above US82c, boosted by broad greenback weakness and a statement from the Reserve Bank of Australia yesterday that was more neutral than expected.
At 8am today the NZ dollar was buying US82.03c against the greenback, after having fallen from around US82.25c around 6.30am, but still up from US81.85c at 5pm yesterday.
The kiwi also rose to around A76.85c overnight, from under A76c before the RBA announcement at 4.30pm yesterday, and by 8am today was at A76.60c.
BNZ currency strategist Mike Jones said the NZ dollar had been propelled higher by the twin tailwinds of a broadly weaker US dollar and heavy demand for the kiwi against the Australian dollar.
The RBA's decision to keep interest rates steady at 4.75 percent had been widely expected, but the accompanying statement had been noticeably less hawkish than expected, Mr Jones said.
Overnight, the NZ dollar had received an additional shot in the arm from a generalised bout of US dollar weakness.
Worries about a sharp slowdown in US economic growth had taken a toll on the US dollar during the past few sessions. Those were compounded overnight by warnings from a Chinese official about the risks of holding excessive US dollar assets.
The NZ dollar dropped to 0.5586 euro at 8am from 0.5602 at 5pm, and was down to 65.62 yen from 65.75. The trade weighted index was 70.12 at 8am from 70.15 at 5pm.
