The New Zealand dollar slipped to a three-week low against the US dollar overnight, and also fell against the euro and the yen.
By 8am today the kiwi was buying US75.35c, from US75.70c at 4.30pm yesterday, and after having fallen to around the US75c level during the offshore session.
Bank of New Zealand currency strategist Danica Hampton said the NZ dollar had come under early selling pressure against the greenback thanks to a broadly stronger US dollar.
But as the night went on, a sharp slide in US equity markets prompted a bout of risk aversion, she said.
While the US equity slide saw the US dollar weaken, it also motivated investors to trim exposure to high-yielding currencies such as the NZ dollar in favour of safe-haven currencies such as the yen.
From 81.15 yen at 4.30pm yesterday, the NZ dollar was down to 80.74 yen by today's local open.
Against the euro, the kiwi slid from 0.4837 to 0.4794 by 8am, but the NZ dollar did make a little ground against its Australian counterpart to be buying A78.91c at the local open from A78.75c. The trade weighted index was down to 67.24 by 8am from 67.56.
Ms Hampton said the focus in this country today would be the Quarterly Survey of Business Opinion, to be released by the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research at 10am.
