NZ dollar weakens against greenback despite higher dairy prices

The kiwi was trading at 65.40 US cents at 5pm. Photo / 123RF

The New Zealand dollar was slightly weaker against the greenback with the 14 per cent jump in the price of whole milk powder, NZ's biggest export, helping offset a weaker tone in global share markets.

The kiwi was trading at 65.40 US cents at 5pm in Wellington from 65.54 cents at the same time yesterday while the trade-weighted index was unchanged at 72.21.

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The domestic currency was higher against the Aussie at 94.24 cents from 94.04 cents at 5pm yesterday after the Victorian state government re-shuttered large swathes of its population for six weeks to try to stamp out a flare up in Covid-19 infections.

Victoria reported 134 new cases of infection in the 24 hours to this morning, down from a record 191 the previous day.

Goldman Sachs is now forecasting Australia's September quarter GDP will contract 3.4 per cent, up from its previous estimate of a 2.75 per cent contraction.

In the latest Global Dairy Trade auction overnight, the prices of most dairy products rose, led by whole milk powder prices, and the headline index was up 8.3 per cent, its biggest lift since November 2016.

Mike Shirley, a dealer at Kiwibank, said the GDT outcome helped support the currency.

"Normally, it's overlooked, but it's hard to overlook a 14 per cent jump in your major export," Shirley said.

Trading since the auction had been "very uneventful, no major headlines, no major data, just waiting for the next big thing," he said with little inkling of what that might be.

Rabobank dairy analyst Michael Harvey said that even the most optimistic commentators would not have predicted the GDT outcome.

"Dairy product pricing in the Northern Hemisphere has been fairly stable in the past few weeks and, while there have been some mixed data on all sides of the market, there hasn't been anything to signal a major shift in fundamentals," Harvey said.

He noted the US dollar had been weaker against a basket of currencies since the last GDT auction in mid-June and that the kiwi is 1.2 per cent higher.

The New Zealand dollar was trading at 52.09 British pence from 52.39 pence, at 57.99 euro cents from 57.92 cents, at 70.31 yen from 70.35 yen and at 4.5903 Chinese yuan from 4.5948 yuan.

The bid price on the two-year swap was at 0.2030 per cent from 0.2100 per cent, while the 10-year swap was at 0.7430 per cent from 0.7575 per cent yesterday.