Dollar piggybacks on Australian strength

Thursday 1st October 2009

The New Zealand dollar held above 72 US cents, helped by a surge in Australia’s currency to near a 14-month high amid further signs that economy is picking up pace.

Retail sales in Australia climbed 0.9% in August, beating forecasts for a 0.5% gain and raising the prospect the Reserve Bank of Australia will hike interest rates earlier rather than later.

The Australian dollar climbed to 88.30 US cents, capping its strongest run of monthly gains in 26 years. The kiwi dollar advanced 5.2% in September after data showed the domestic economy climbed out of recession in the second quarter, the current account deficit shrank to a five-year low and business confidence hit its highest level in a decade.

“The kiwi’s just held on to the Aussie dollar’s coat-tails,” said Tim Kelleher, vice president of institutional banking and markets at Commonwealth Bank of Australia, referring to the currencies by their colloquial names.

“The National Bank business survey hit a 10-year high for confidence while the kiwi was already rallying and added to the mix.”

The kiwi edged higher to 72.15 US cents from 72.08 cents yesterday, and rose to 65.58 on the trade-weighted index, or TWI, a measure of the currency versus the Australian dollar, greenback, yen, euro and pound, from 65.43. It increased to 81.82 Australian cents from 81.74 cents yesterday, and climbed to 64.74 yen from 64.45 yen. It was little changed at 49.30 euro cents from 49.26 cents yesterday.

Kelleher said the currency may trade between 71.90 US cents and 72.40 cents today as it consolidates ahead of US employment data on Friday in Washington.

Weak data in the US pushed stocks on Wall Street lower after the Institute for Supply Management-Chicago’s business barometer, a measure if activity in Chicago that’s used as a national benchmark, fell unexpectedly last month, while US companies cut more jobs than expected, according to ADP Employer Services.

Still, the world’s largest economy only contracted an annual 0.7% in the second quarter according to government data. Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Donald Kohn joined the chorus of US central bankers who have said tighter monetary policy will be done rapidly rather than gradually.

Key data releases today are Japan’s retail trade figures and Tankan survey of business sentiment, and China’s production manufacturing index.

Businesswire.co.nz

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