NZ shares, kiwi push higher in light holiday trading

The kiwi rose to 68.44 US cents at 5pm in Wellington from 68.11 cents at 5pm on Wednesday.

Short positioning is quite large in some currencies – such as the kiwi – “so the path of least resistance is probably higher given lack of flow and volumes,” said Tim Kelleher, head of institutional foreign exchange sales at Commonwealth Bank of Australia.

The kiwi is benefiting from some general profit-taking on long US dollar positions and “there may be some year-end window dressing going on as well”, he said.

Markets are betting on the US dollar to rise because they are assuming the US Federal Reserve will be next to act and they are “far behind the rate hike curve”, he said.