Kiwi falls against the yen ahead of new US president

The NZ dollar fell against the yen, which has broadly strengthened ahead of Donald Trump’s inauguration on Saturday and gained against the pound on renewed Brexit concerns.

The kiwi fell to ¥80.92 at 5pm yesterday from ¥81.63 in late New York trading on Friday.

It rose to 58.98p from 58.44p and weakened to US70.89 cents from US71.27c at the end of last week.

The yen strengthened to 114.16 per US dollar from 114.67 on Friday in New York as traders contemplated potential changes in US economic policy under a Trump administration, which could include a more protectionist trading position with partners including China.

“Heavy US dollar trades are starting to flow through, the closer we get to Trump’s inauguration,” said Tim Kelleher, head of institutional foreign exchange sales at ASB Bank. The weaker pound “is completely to do with May’s speech about a hard Brexit”. May is scheduled to give a speech on Tuesday which the Sunday Times reported would signal plans for a “hard Brexit”, trading off membership of the tariff-free zone for the right to curb migration and forge separate trade deals with other regions and nations.

The trade-weighted slipped to 78.07 from 78.30.

The kiwi decreased to A94.86c from A94.98c on Friday.

NZ’s two-year swap rate fell 3 basis points at 2.35 per cent. index