The New Zealand dollar hitched a ride with its trans-Tasman neighbour yesterday, but was knocked back a little overnight by a stronger United States greenback.The Australian dollar climbed 1.5 percent against the dollar and 1.3 percent versus the yen, buo
The New Zealand dollar hitched a ride with its trans-Tasman neighbour yesterday, but was knocked back a little overnight by a stronger United States greenback.
The Australian dollar climbed 1.5 percent against the dollar and 1.3 percent versus the yen, buoyed by a bigger-than-expected rise in Australian employment in January, while the jobless rate hit an 11-month low.
It later extended its gains after an unexpected slowdown in Chinese consumer inflation in January soothed some concerns about the need for quick monetary tightening by Chinese authorities.
Australia's good news ensured the New Zealand dollar was able to extend to the topside of a small hourly channel. Overnight, however, increasing US dollar strength and a reversal in the Australian dollar knocked it back lower, said ANZ economist Mark Smith.
Any topside moves today should be well capped in advance of today's local economic data. The European picture remained a weighing factor on any advances as did increasing US dollar strength, he said.
The kiwi was worth US69.79c at 5pm yesterday. Overnight it traded between US69.54c and US70.13c and at 8am today was in the high side of that range at US70.05c.
Against the Australian the kiwi dropped to A78.58c at 5pm yesterday, but overnight stayed steady around that range, and was worth A78.69c at 8am today.
Overnight the kiwi rose steadily against the euro, up to 0.5122 from 0.5062 yesterday, was wobbly against the yen, ending up at 62.83 from 62.72, and steady against the pound, worth 44.67p from 44.59p yesterday.
The trade weighted index stood at 64.78, up from 64.38 at 8am yesterday.
Meanwhile, the euro slumped against the dollar on Thursday, giving up earlier gains, as investors awaited more details on a rescue plan for debt-stricken Greece and worried about repercussions for the rest of the euro zone.
In midday New York trading, the euro was down 0.6 percent at $1.3634 after earlier falling as low as $1.3596. The euro also hit a session high of $1.3801, according to Reuters data, following the EU announcement that several key euro zone officials have reached a deal to help Greece.
The euro fell 0.9 percent against the yen to 122.33 yen. The dollar slipped 0.3 percent against the yen to 89.71.
