Kiwi slips below US79c for first time in fortnight

Thursday 5th May 2011

The New Zealand dollar slipped below US79c against the greenback overnight for the first time in a fortnight, as a slide in commodity prices provided support for the United States dollar against commodity-linked currencies.

That was despite the US dollar falling against the ICE Futures' US dollar index to its weakest level since mid 2008, as softer-than-expected employment and services sector data affirmed expectations US interest rates would remain low this year.

The greenback also fell to a record low against the Swiss franc and at one point dropped below 80.50 against the yen, the US dollar's weakest level since major central banks intervened to weaken the Japanese currency in mid March.

The kiwi has fallen from a three-year high near US81.20c which it reached early on Tuesday, and at 8am today was buying US79.02c, down from US79.21c at 5pm yesterday.

The NZ dollar also slipped below A73c overnight for the first time in five weeks, but then rebounded to A73.61c at 8am, up from A73.21c at 5pm.

The kiwi reached its lowest level in nearly six weeks against the European currency, near 0.5290 euro, then scrambled back up to 0.5328 euro at 8am, still below the 0.5351 at 5pm.

The New Zealand dollar was down to 63.66 yen at 8am from 64.10, while the trade weighted index fell to 67.38 from 67.56 at 5pm.

NZPA

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