The New Zealand dollar was higher against major overseas currencies after the overnight session was volatile as investors waited for the release of minutes from the United States Federal Reserve's latest meeting.Those minutes were published around 7am (NZ
The New Zealand dollar was higher against major overseas currencies after the overnight session was volatile as investors waited for the release of minutes from the United States Federal Reserve's latest meeting.
Those minutes were published around 7am (NZT) and showed members felt further monetary easing could be appropriate before long.
After a bouncy night the kiwi was buying US75.47c at 8am, near the overnight high point reached shortly after 7am, having climbed from US74.96c at 5pm yesterday.
ANZ bank said the NZ dollar had dipped below US75c as expected and found support at US74.80c.
"Overnight position squaring and reasonable sized offshore demand saw it lifted towards this morning's opening level," ANZ said.
The euro swung wildly between gains and losses against the US dollar throughout the session but finally settled in positive territory after the Fed minutes indicated officials had believed in September that further help for the struggling economy might be needed soon and discussed how best that might be done.
"The comments support and reinforce the view that there will be Fed policy action at the November meeting," said Nick Bennenbroek, head of FX strategy at Wells Fargo in New York. "This seems to be the consensus now and so we're seeing the euro gaining against the (US) dollar."
The NZ dollar reached a two-week high around 0.5455 euro shortly before 1am, and by 8am was at 0.5423, still up from the 0.5403 at 5pm.
The kiwi was also up to 61.76 yen at 8am from 61.38 at 5pm, while being little changed at A76.51c against the Australian dollar. The trade weighted index rose to 67.02 at 8am from 66.70.
