The New Zealand dollar is higher against the United States dollar following weaker-than-expected jobs data.
Bancorp Treasury Services senior client advisor Peter Cavanaugh said New Zealand dollar rose, "along with just about everything else against the US dollar", following weaker-than-expected US non-farm payrolls data which was released on Friday (US time).
"That's created a shift in people's expectations for the US economy and a question about where the Federal Reserve is going, so having made that adjustment, the world is now patiently waiting for the next driver," Mr Cavanaugh said.
That driver would new US Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen making her inaugural testimony to Congress.
"They're waiting to see if she's going to carry on the Federal Reserve's tapering programme," he said.
The US economy added 113,000 new jobs in January compared with expectations of about 180,000 jobs.
Just after 5pm, the the Kiwi was trading at 82.76 US cents, 92.52 Australian cents, 50.44 pence, 0.6076 euro and 84.73 yen.
Shares down
The share market had a down day, despite stronger US and Australian markets, the NZX Top 50 Index falling 8 points to 4833.
Forsyth Barr investment adviser Aaron Rait said the fact US share markets rose was perverse because of the bad jobs news.
"I think Kiwis are actually being a bit cautious today," he said.
The best news locally was Pacific Edge shares gaining 8 cents to $1.72 on news of a commercial agreement for district health boards to use its non-invasive bladder cancer detection system.
However, Vector shares fell as much as 18 cents, or more than 7 percent, to $2.30 before recovering to close at $2.38. The fall was prompted the possibility the Commerce Commission could make an adverse ruling against Vector.
Another stock to fall was Opus, which lost 7 cents to $2.08.
