NZ dollar dips ahead of US job numbers

The New Zealand dollar slipped after a quiet day by recent standards as investors wait to see just how bad unemployment is becoming in the United States.

The kiwi was trading at US59.07c at 5pm yesterday from US59.28c at the same time on Thursday after trading in just a 30 point range — ranges of several cents have been common recently.

Figures released in the US yesterday showed 6.65 million Americans filed for unemployment insurance last week following

3.3 million filing the previous week. Benchmark data on the US employment market, the non-farm payrolls, was due overnight.

“Relative to what we’ve seen over the last couple of weeks, it was very subdued”, although there was plenty to react to, had the market been so inclined, said Mike Shirley, a dealer at Kiwibank.

For example, assistant Reserve Bank governor Christian Hawksby made a statement saying that ATM cash deposit and withdrawal facilities are functioning well and customers were adjusting to banks’ reduced operating hours.

And Finance Minister Grant Robertson announced further measures to help cushion the effect of the crisis on businesses.

“Nothing they said was really new or ground-breaking as far as the market was concerned. It was just more reassuring talk,” Shirley said. As well, Moody’s Investors Service maintained New Zealand’s “Aaa” credit rating.

The kiwi was trading at A97.38c from A97.37c on Thursday. It was at 47.74 British pence from 47.86p, at 54.45 euro cents from €54.18c, at 63.79 yen from ¥63.66 and at

4.1846 Chinese yuan from 4.2101.