Steady kiwi dollar looks to US for signs of direction

The New Zealand dollar was treading water near the top of its recent range yesterday on speculation the US Federal Reserve will either slow down or pause further rate hikes and hopes for a positive outcome to United States-China trade talks.

The kiwi dollar was trading at US67.44c at 5pm yesterday compared with US67.54c at 8.30am. The tradeweighted index rose to 73.31 points from 73.28.

Matthew Herbert, a dealer at Bank of New Zealand, said slightly weaker than expected data from the US Institute of Supply Management added weight to the Fed slow-down theme. Major equity markets are also showing a slight improvement in sentiment.

“Any sort of recovery is being viewed quite positively,” he said.

Japan’s Nikkei Index was up about 0.8 per cent late yesterday afternoon. The S&P 500 Index futures ticked up a little after the physical market closed 0.7 per cent higher.

That’s in contrast to sharp swings — several percentage points up and down — in the S&P 500 last week, sparked in part by Apple reporting a downturn in December quarter sales in China. The kiwi dollar edged up to A94.61c from A94.53c on Monday but eased to 52.85 British pence from 52.90p.

It rose to 58.95 euro cents from €58.82c, to 73.41 yen from ¥73.31, and to 4.6229 Chinese yuan from 4.6266.