The New Zealand dollar spent most of today above 69USc after strengthening during the weekend.The NZ dollar was at 69.28USc at 5pm from 69.08USc at 8am, and 68.03USc at 5pm on Friday.News that retail sales fell 0.3% in April was not seen as having implica
The New Zealand dollar spent most of today above 69USc after strengthening during the weekend.
The NZ dollar was at 69.28USc at 5pm from 69.08USc at 8am, and 68.03USc at 5pm on Friday.
News that retail sales fell 0.3% in April was not seen as having implications for Reserve Bank monetary policy.
Consumer spending restraint would not stop the RBNZ from hiking further, but it would be influential in terms of where the official cash rate ultimately ended up, ANZ said.
The central bank raised the official cash rate by 25 basis points to 2.75% last Thursday.
Westpac said the RBNZ action was clearly supportive to the NZ dollar but global risk appetite would still be the dominant determining factor for its direction.
"An improvement in global sentiment this week would benefit the Australian dollar more than the NZ dollar," Westpac said.
Rankin Treasury said it would take very little to cause the NZ dollar to become flightless in the current nervous environment.
"Until we see a breach of the 65.50-70.00USc range, we face a period of déja vu all over again. Thus, exporters should cover under 66USc and importers add to cover above 69.50USc," Rankin Treasury said.
The NZ dollar was buying ¥63.61 at 5pm from ¥62.26 at 5pm on Friday.
ANZ said the NZ dollar should remain high against the yen as the new Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan acknowledged their economy was at "risk of collapse under the mountain of sovereign debt."
At 5pm the NZ dollar was €0.5687 from €0.5619 at 5pm on Friday.
With issues still persisting in Europe and protests now in Germany it was likely it would maintain its ground against the euro, ANZ said.
Against the Australian dollar, the NZ dollar was 80.85Ac, slightly up from 80.62Ac at 5pm Friday.
The trade weighted index was 67.30 at 5pm from 66.35 at 5pm Friday.
