The outcome makes it less likely the central bank will cut interest rates.
"We've got a Reserve Bank meeting next week and were today's numbers weak, they would've expressed that in their commentary," Speizer says.
Because the data was relatively strong, the Reserve Bank is more likely to say similar things to its statement in February when it said the next move in interest rates could be either up or down, depending on how the data develops.
In the US, the Fed held interest rates steady, as expected, and ruled out any rate hikes this year, pencilling in a single increase in 2020.
The Fed also said it will cease quantitative tightening – unwinding its previous money printing programme, which has a similar impact to raising interest rates – from September.
The Fed still has almost US$4 billion of bonds and other securities on its balance sheet accumulated through its efforts to counter the impact of the global financial crisis in 2008.
The Fed also lowered its inflation and GDP forecasts, which sent longer-term interest rates around the world tumbling.
The yield on the New Zealand government bond maturing in 2029 briefly fell below 2 percent, Speizer says.
The two-year swap was at 1.8032 percent, from 1.8013 on Wednesday. The 10-year swap was at 2.2825 percent from 2.3150 after earlier reaching a record low.
The New Zealand currency also got a boost today from Australian data showing that country's unemployment rate eased to 4.9 percent in February compared with expectations of 5 percent.
That reflected a fall in the participation rate and the number of jobs added was also less than a third of expectations, Speizer noted.
"The consensus was that it wasn't as bad as it might have been," he said.
The New Zealand dollar was trading at 96.70 Australian cents from 96.74, at 52.34 British pence from 52.18, at 60.52 euro cents from 60.37, at 76.37 yen from 76.45 and at 4.6192 Chinese yuan from 4.6246.
