Australia trade data lifts kiwi

The New Zealand dollar edged up against the Australian dollar today after weaker-than-expected November trade data across the Tasman.

The kiwi rose to A91.08c as at 5pm from A90.59c late on Thursday. It rose to US71.58c from US70.97c.

The Aussie came under some pressure when data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed a seasonally adjusted deficit of $628 million in November, well below the $550m surplus that had been expected by economists.

"It was a bit disappointing ... for the next GDP read it probably means there is some downside risk," said Chris Weston, chief market strategist at IG Markets.

"There's a bit of strength in the kiwi and it is certainly outperforming the Aussie," he said.

The kiwi is also benefiting as the US dollar remains out of favour, he said. "Risk taking is quite abundant."

The trend in the kiwi is higher for now but "the big question in the macro landscape at the moment is where to for the US dollar?"

There were asset managers running large short US dollar positions - betting the greenback will continue to wane and Weston said he doesn't expect them to change their positioning until real yields start moving higher.

"As long as real yields are staying low, then money is going to flow into high beta currencies and also emerging market currencies."

Markets will be watching for US jobs data later but Weston is not expecting fireworks.

The Kiwi dollar rose to 52.75p from 52.49p on Thursday and gained to €59.26c from €59.05c. It rose to ¥80.75 from ¥79.94 and traded at 4.6385 yuan from 4.6177 yuan.