NZD up ahead of Jackson Hole

The New Zealand dollar rose against the greenback today, with reduced expectations in the market that US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke would confirm another round of quantitative easing at the Jackson Hole summit on Friday.

The kiwi recently traded at US80.14c, up from US80.05c. On the Trade Weighted Index against major trading partners' currencies it was at 72.10, up from 72.00 in the morning.

HiFX senior currency dealer Dan Bell said the kiwi came under selling pressure in the morning but managed to recover.

"The market was really driven by reduced expectations of another round of US quantitative easing. We are seeing the New Zealand dollar come off some recent highs as investors square up their positions leading up to that [Jackson Hole] announcement," Bell said.

"We had a better than expected National Bank Business confidence survey out this afternoon, but that has been pretty much ignored with the focus firmly on offshore announcements over the next few days."

On the crosses the kiwi was at 77.60 Australian cents, up from A77.25c earlier. It rose to 63.93 euro cents from 63.88 euro cents in the morning. It was at 63.01 Japanese yen, up marginally from 63.00 yen earlier, and rose to 50.64 pence from 50.57 pence earlier.

Bell expected the kiwi to trade between US80.00c and US80.80c overnight with a bias towards the upside. "The market is being reasonably cautious,"' he said.

- © Fairfax NZ News