The New Zealand dollar had a quiet night as both the United States and Japanese markets were closed for holidays.By 8am the kiwi was buying US75.32c down from US75.48c at 5pm yesterday.BNZ markets strategist Mike Jones said holidays in Japan and the US ha
The New Zealand dollar had a quiet night as both the United States and Japanese markets were closed for holidays.
By 8am the kiwi was buying US75.32c down from US75.48c at 5pm yesterday.
BNZ markets strategist Mike Jones said holidays in Japan and the US had ensured lacklustre trading prevailed overnight, with the NZ dollar spending most of the 24 hours to 8am consolidating in a tight range between US75.10c and US75.70c.
Profit taking on investors' large net short US dollar positions had knocked most of the major currencies modestly lower, including the NZ dollar against the greenback, Mr Jones said.
The US dollar sank to a 15-year low of 81.37 yen on the EBS electronic trading platform in Asian trade, but then rallied against the euro and yen as investors bet that the greenback's recent declines were too far, too fast.
Despite that, sentiment toward the US dollar remained broadly bearish, as the Federal Reserve looked set to pump more cash into the economy after a weekend meeting of finance leaders produced no quick fix for tensions in currency markets.
The NZ dollar was worth 0.5424 euro at 8am from 0.5403 at 5pm yesterday, while easing slightly to 61.82 yen, and to A76.40c against the Australian dollar. The trade weighted index edged down to 66.93 at 8am from 66.95 yesterday.
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