NZ dollar stagnates amid US and British holidays
By Jenny Ruth
May 28 (BusinessDesk) - The New Zealand dollar was little changed with the major United States and British markets
closed for holidays and after US President Donald Trump made positive noises about reaching a trade agreement with
Japan.
The kiwi was trading at 65.51 US cents at 5pm in Wellington from 65.41 at 7.55am and the trade-weighted index edged up
to 72.07 points from 72.07.
“The New Zealand dollar has been stuck in the doldrums,” says Peter Cavanaugh, the senior client advisor at Bancorp
Treasury Services.
“The only things the market has to fret about are Brexit and the European elections, neither of which have much impact
in New Zealand."
Trump ended his four-day state visit to Japan today but held a joint press conference with Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo
Abe at which Trump said he wants to remove trade barriers to give US exports a fair footing in Japan and expressed hope
that will happen.
The more contentious issue is the US trade war with China but there have been no new developments on that front.
The US markets were closed on Monday for the Memorial Day holiday while British markets were also closed for its Spring
Bank Holiday.
The New Zealand dollar was unchanged at 94.56 Australian cents, at 51.69 British pence from 51.47, at 58.57 euro cents
from 58.47, at 71.75 yen from 71.62 and at 4.5237 Chinese yuan from 4.5101.
The New Zealand two-year swap rate fell to 1.4771 percent from 1.4830 on Friday while the 10-year swap rate eased to
1.9700 percent from 1.9750.
(BusinessDesk)