The Standard & Poor's 500 ended Wednesday with a loss of 3.29 per cent, the Nasdaq Composite shed 4.08 per cent and the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 3.2 per cent. New Zealand's S&P/NZX 50 index was down 3.6 per cent at 5pm, tracking a sea of red in Asia.
The New Zealand dollar has been "remarkably resilient given how much stock markets fell overnight and today," said Imre Speizer, Westpac Banking Corp's head of NZ strategy.
The kiwi held up partly because the market has now fully priced the Federal Reserve's tightening cycle and also because the kiwi's recent sharp fall means it is trading below fair value at around 68 US cents.
Comments from US President Donald Trump, who pointed an accusing finger at the Fed for raising interest rates, also helped keep a lid on the greenback. "I really disagree with what the Fed is doing," Trump told reporters. "I think the Fed has gone crazy."
Speizer said any hint of possible government pressure on the Federal Reserve will make markets nervous. The yield on US 10-year Tressuries also pulled back to 3.15 per cent after touching a high of 3.26 per cent earlier this week.
The focus now will be on US September consumer price index figures due later today. A higher-than-expected outcome could see the greenback gain as it will add to speculation of a more aggressive tightening cycle from the Fed. Investors are expecting inflation to have edged up 0.2 per cent on the month and 2.4 per cent on the year, according to Dow Jones Newswires.
The kiwi traded at 48.94 British pence from 49.27 pence yesterday and rose to 91.51 Australian cents from 91.09 cents yesterday. It was at 4.4872 Chinese yuan from 4.4862 yuan. It declined to 72.59 yen from 73.29 yen yesterday and was at 55.97 euro cents from 56.33 cents.
New Zealand's two-year rate was unchanged at 2.01 per cent while 10-year swaps eased 2 basis points to 2.89 per cent.
