The New Zealand dollar was slightly weaker against the greenback after rising yields on US government bonds continued to spark some renewed interest in the US dollar in Asia.
The local currency traded at US71.64c at 5pm from US71.69c at 9am and from US71.79c yesterday. The trade-weighted index was at 74.66 from 74.64 yesterday.
The US dollar found favour when the yield on US 10-year Treasuries rose almost 6 basis points to 2.54 per cent, the highest since March last year, as investors cooled on bonds.
That coincided with the Bank of Japan announcing it would reduce purchases of long-dated Japanese bonds. However, while the US dollar gained, commodity-linked currencies such as the Aussie and the kiwi continued to benefit from buoyant commodity prices with oil prices lifting to their highest since 2014.
The kiwi is "still very volatile," said Ross Weston, a senior trader at Kiwibank, noting it dipped down to US71.40c before coming back up again.
Still, the currency was sticking to a fairly tight range and "is having real trouble break the 72 US cents mark," he said.