The dollar remained above Wednesday's all-time low of 39.90USc yesterday, despite being hammered by some aggressive selling of the Australian dollar.
The kiwi sank to 39.91USc but recovered to close at 40.19USc.
Overnight (Friday night) weakness is expected in the euro and aussie, the latter hitting an all-time low of 52.85USc yesterday, its second record low this week.
The European Central Bank surprisingly raised interest rates a quarter of a percentage point - a move seen as reinforcing intervention by G7 banks to support the ailing euro.
Bank of New Zealand chief dealer Mike Symonds said the kiwi had been on the back foot as a result of aggressive aussie selling but had performed relatively well.
"Some of the selling in the kiwi was speculative positions, as people went short in the New Zealand dollar as the aussie dollar weakened on the back of this very large sell-order," Mr Symonds said.
"Even with this continued weakness in the aussie the kiwi never looked like it was going through 39.90USc Friday morning," he said.
"The kiwi is still languishing but it is interesting that it seems to be losing a bit of momentum on the downside ... and it does look as though we may be in a position to stage a bit of a recovery towards the 41.50USc area."
"I think the market is still of the view that we haven't seen the bottom. We've been seeing the kiwi recover 20 points and fall 100 - it's been a difficult week for the kiwi."
- NZPA
<i>Currency:</i> Kiwi beats hard aussie selling
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