The New Zealand Dollar held its ground against a softening greenback but slipped against the EURO ahead of an expected rate hike by the European Central Bank.
By 8am the kiwi was buying US75.96c, similar to the US75.90c at 4.30pm yesterday. Against the euro, the NZ dollar was down to 0.4781 by the local open, around two-year lows, from 0.4802 yesterday afternoon.
ANZ bank said a weaker US dollar had helped lift the euro and Australian dollar, both of which dragged the kiwi up from around US75.60c overnight.
The NZ dollar was down to A78.94c against the aussie at 8am from A79.07c at 4.30pm.
The aussie gained on the greenback and euro after Australian retail sales data yesterday soundly beat expectations for May, challenging the official view that interest rates were high enough to curb domestic demand.
The overnight weakening of the US dollar came after a report showed the US private sector shed more jobs than expected in June, which may diminish the likelihood of a rate increase by the Federal Reserve.
In contrast, investors bought the euro ahead of an expected interest rate hike by the European Central Bank tonight (NZT). The ECB is widely expected to lift its key lending rate by 25 basis points to 4.25 percent, and President Jean-Claude Trichet's news conference after the meeting may indicate further increases.
The NZ dollar eased up against the yen overnight to 80.52 from 80.45, while the trade weighted index slipped to 67.37 by 8am from 67.42.