The New Zealand dollar fell against the greenback and yen after the United States Securities and Exchange Commission charged leading investment bank Goldman Sachs with fraud, prompting investors to seek refuge in the safe haven currencies.After the news b
The New Zealand dollar fell against the greenback and yen after the United States Securities and Exchange Commission charged leading investment bank Goldman Sachs with fraud, prompting investors to seek refuge in the safe haven currencies.
After the news broke, shortly before 3am Saturday (NZ time), the NZ dollar fell from around US71.25c to around US70.65c an hour later. By 8am today the kiwi was at US70.76c from US71.07c at 5pm on Friday.
The NZ dollar also fell from around 65.80 yen to 65 yen on the back of the Goldman Sachs news, and after a weak attempt at recovery was at 64.98 yen at the local open from 65.90 yen at Friday's local close.
In its morning briefing note, ANZ said the Goldman Sachs news threw markets into turmoil with stocks selling off, bonds rallying, and commodities falling.
Beyond the obvious knee-jerk market reaction, the bigger question was whether the charges were an isolated incident, or just the first shot in what was set to be a much bigger stoush that may involve more regulators and more banks, ANZ said.
Although also falling against the European currency after the Goldman Sachs news, the kiwi was at the same level at 8am today as at 5pm Friday, around 0.5250 euro.
The kiwi rose against the Australian dollar to A76.72c at today's local open from A76.45c on Friday evening. The trade weighted index fell to 65.55 at 8am today from 65.74 at 5pm on Friday.
The NZ dollar had found support to finish against the aussie last week looking relatively well supported, ANZ said.
