Kiwi eases as offshore Covid cases spike

The New Zealand dollar was weaker but within its recent trading range as Melbourne reported a record number of new Covid infections and the US recorded rampant new infections.

The kiwi was trading at US65.50c at 5pm yesterday from US65.83c at the same time on Thursday but up from US65.32c in New York a week ago. The trade-weighted index was at

72.28 from 72.37.

Victoria, which sent Melbourne back into a six-week lockdown earlier this week, recorded 288 new Covid-19 infections, up from the previous peak of 191 that triggered the renewed lockdown.

Melbourne’s woes paled into insignificance against developments in the US, which reported new infections above 61,000 for the second day running.

New Zealand recorded another two new infections yesterday, both returning travellers.

Falling sharemarkets around the world didn’t help sentiment either — in recent months the fortunes of both the kiwi and Australian dollars, which are typically regarded as a proxy for risk, have been closely linked to waxing and waning shares.

Mitchell McIntyre, a dealer at XE, said trading has been very quiet and it’s been “a very gradual pullback in the scheme of things”. Rumours have been circulating that after the strong rally in Chinese stocks of late, Chinese pension funds have been selling.

While only rumours, “that might’ve introduced a tiny bit of risk aversion going into the weekend”, McIntyre said.

The New Zealand dollar was trading at A94.42c from A94.15c at 5pm on Thursday, at 52.04 British pence from 52.11 pence, at

58.10 euro cents from €57.92c, at 70.05 yen from ¥70.61 and at 4.5871 Chinese yuan from

4.5969 yuan.