After trading in a range between US58.16c and US59.57c overnight, the kiwi was buying US59.35c at 8am compared with US58.53c at 5pm yesterday.
The kiwi also rose against the Australian dollar to A83.78c at 8am (from A83.00c at 5pm), to 0.4334 euro (from 0.4307) and to 39.11 British pence (38.90p), but eased to 54.14 yen (54.29).
Against the basket of currencies measured by the trade-weighted index, the kiwi firmed to 57.78 at 8am from 57.37 yesterday evening.
Reuters reported from New York this morning that the US dollar weakened against the yen, amid reignited worries about the global economic outlook.
The greenback also fell against the euro after the latest weekly data showed the number of Americans on unemployment benefits rose to a 26-year high.
The US dollar had rallied in the first few days of 2009, buoyed by a US stimulus package that many hope would help pull the economy out of recession. But that optimism proved short-lived as fresh US data, including the steep drop in private sector jobs, showed that this could be a prolonged slowdown.
President-elect Barack Obama's speech outlining some measures to ease the pain for the ailing US economy had little impact on the dollar.
