Mike Shirley, a dealer at Kiwibank, said the currency's spike in offshore trading was more a case of US dollar weakness after data showed weakened corporate activity.
The IHS Markit purchasing managers' index for February fell 3.7 points to 49.6 – any reading below 50 points signals contraction.
The last time the index, which measures composite output at factories and service providers, fell below 50 was in October 2013 in the midst of a US government shutdown.
Then this morning, "we came back in again and corona took control again and that's where we've traded all day," Shirley said.
As has been the case since the coronavirus crisis emerged in late January, those in the market are watching headlines and trying to interpret whether they're good or bad news, he said.
Today's headlines included South Korea's President Moon Jae-in putting that country on the highest possible alert, a move empowering the government to lock down cities and to take other sweeping measures to contain the disease after cases spiralled in just days to 763 confirmed infections and six deaths.
New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern today extended restrictions on travellers from China for a further eight days, a ban that will be reviewed every 48 hours. New Zealand citizens and permanent residents are allowed to return but have to self-isolate for 14 days.
The Ministry of Health is looking at whether the travel ban should be extended to other countries.
New Zealand has yet to record any cases of coronavirus.
Attending the same media briefing as Ardern, Finance Minister Grant Robertson promised more government spending, if necessary.
He said New Zealand was in a strong position to weather the impacts of the crisis but that the Ministry of Social Development was also assessing scenarios should there be a long-lasting shock to the economy or a global recession.
The New Zealand dollar was at 95.64 Australian cents from 95.55 cents at 5pm on Friday. It was at 48.88 British pence from 48.94, at 58.41 euro cents from 58.48, at 70.53 yen from 70.69 and at 4.4457 Chinese yuan from 4.4348.
The two-year swap rate fell below 1 per cent for the first time since November, ending today at a bid price of 0.9800 per cent from 1.0327 on Friday while 10-year swaps fell to 1.3030 per cent from 1.3675.
