NZ dollar little changed as RBA review looms, local business confidence improves

The New Zealand dollar was little changed ahead of tomorrow's Reserve Bank of Australia policy review, kicking off a busy week for economic data and central bank activity.

The kiwi traded at 65.38 US cents at 5pm in Wellington from 65.27 cents at 8am and 65.30 cents on Friday in New York. The trade-weighted index slipped to 71.28 from 71.47 last week.

Trading was relatively quiet at the open of a week which includes monetary policy reviews in Australia, Canada and Europe, speeches from Federal Reserve officials including official testimony from chair Janet Yellen, and ending with US employment figures likely to inform whether the Fed will start hiking interest rates later next month. The GlobalDairyTrade auction on Tuesday in the US will also attract attention on whether it will influence New Zealand's central bank.

"We have such a massive data week globally speaking, that people are treading fairly lightly at the beginning of the week," said Stuart Ive, senior dealer foreign exchange at OMF in Wellington. The sum of data this week "should be US dollar positive."

A BusinessDesk survey of 10 currency analysts predicts the kiwi will trade between 63.50 US cents and 67.50 cents this week. Six expect it to decline, two say it may advance and two bet it will remain largely unchanged.

New Zealand business confidence rose to a six-month high in the latest ANZ Business Outlook survey, while government data showed residential building consents rose 5.1 percent in October.

New Zealand's two-year swap rate increased one basis point to 2.71 percent at 5pm in Wellington, and 10-year swaps advanced one basis point to 3.53 percent.

The local currency rose to 90.92 Australian cents from 90.73 cents on Friday in New York ahead of tomorrow's RBA review, which is expected to keep the benchmark rate unchanged.

The kiwi increased to 4.1816 Chinese yuan from 4.1756 yuan last week ahead of manufacturing data scheduled for tomorrow.

The local currency was little changed at 80.22 yen from 80.20 yen last week, and traded at 61.75 euro cents from 61.63 cents. It was little changed at 43.49 British pence from 43.42 pence.

(BusinessDesk)