The New Zealand dollar firmed slightly today, in line with a weaker US dollar across the board.
The kiwi traded in a narrow range, closing at US61.96c, compared with US61.76c on Friday.
Mark Elliott, a senior dealer with ANZ Investment Bank, said the kiwi had "run out of sellers," and
it was assisted by a softer greenback after a lower second-quarter GDP figure out of the US on Friday night.
Overnight, he thought the market would probably squeeze the kiwi higher to US62.20-30c.
The US action was coupled with a "bit of profit-taking" on the kiwi-aussie cross, which saw dealers unwind their short positions ahead of Wednesday's interest rate announcement in Australia.
"The market's very long of aussie against the kiwi and there's a little bit of book squaring," Mr Elliott said.
The kiwi closed at A80.83c (from A81.02c on Friday's close) and the Australian dollar closed at US76.66c against the US dollar (US76.19c).
On other crosses, the kiwi was lower, buying 70.87 yen (71.38 yen) and 0.4855 euro (0.4868). The TWI was stronger at 61.75 (62.11).
This afternoon, the US dollar slid to a 2 1/2 week low against the yen of 114.50 yen, after Friday's GDP report further dampened speculation that the Federal Reserve might raise interest rates next week.
Meanwhile, the yen - often a proxy for Chinese currency - could rise on lingering speculation that China would allow faster appreciation of the yuan as authorities try to cool the economy's red-hot pace of growth.
The following are Reuters currency rates:
5pm today 5pm Friday
NZ dlr/US dlr US61.96c US61.76c
NZ dlr/Aust dlr A80.83c A81.02c
NZ dlr/euro 0.4855 0.4868
NZ dlr/yen 70.87 71.38
NZ dlr/stg 33.22p 33.24p
NZ TWI 61.75 62.11
Australian dollar US76.66 US76.19c
Euro/US dollar US1.2764 US1.2696
US dollar/yen 114.37 115.81
- NZPA
