The New Zealand dollar hit a four-year low as the greenback was buoyed when concerns over the ongoing US-China trade war were allayed by the White House playing down reports that it was considering de-listing Chinese firms from the US stock exchange.
The kiwi fell as low as 62.50 US cents, and was trading at 62.62 cents at 8am in Wellington from 62.66 cents at 5pm yesterday. The trade-weighted index was at 69.89 from 69.97.
Stocks on Wall Street rose and the greenback remained strong after White House trade adviser Peter Navarro dismissed reports that the US administration is considering de-listing Chinese firms to limit their access to US investment. The US dollar strength came at a time when the kiwi was already under pressure from yesterday's weak business confidence reading in spite of the Reserve Bank's efforts to revive investment by cutting the official cash rate to 1 per cent.
"We remain of the view that the RBNZ's growth forecasts are too optimistic and expect further OCR cuts in November and February," Bank of New Zealand interest rate strategist Nick Smyth said in a note.
"The NZ dollar has underperformed over the past 24 hours and it is the second weakest currency in the G10, above only the Swedish krona."
