The New Zealand dollar was stronger against the greenback and yen, but weaker against the euro after the European Union and IMF carved out an emergency loan package of up to €750 billion to keep Greece's debt crisis from spreading through the euro zo
The New Zealand dollar was stronger against the greenback and yen, but weaker against the euro after the European Union and IMF carved out an emergency loan package of up to €750 billion to keep Greece's debt crisis from spreading through the euro zone.
The size of the package and an unexpected pledge by the European Central Bank to buy euro zone bonds, if needed, gave investors some confidence to return to riskier assets.
It promoted short covering in currencies that had been under pressure last week. The euro jumped and stock markets rallied.
By 5pm today the NZ dollar was buying 72.14USc, little changed from 72.04USc at 8am, which was up from 71.16USc at 5pm on Friday.
It rose to ¥66.84 from ¥65.56 at 5pm on Friday. It was down to €0.5582 from €0.5603 at 5pm on Friday.
One of the ironies of the financial market disruptions last week was that it occurred just when a lot of the economic data had been looking better globally, BNZ said in a market outlook.
The global financial story is expected to dominate markets again this week with only minor economic reports due locally. The Australian federal budget on Tuesday will also be watched by investors.
Against the Australian dollar, the NZ dollar was at 79.95Ac at 5pm today from 79.94Ac at 5pm on Friday, while the trade weighted index lifted to 68.20 at 5pm from 67.76.
