The New Zealand dollar was mixed but broadly little changed, slightly firmer against the US dollar, the euro and the yen but marginally weaker against the Australian dollar and the British pound.
Westpac currency strategist Imre Speizer says the market is waiting for announcements from both the New Zealand and United States central banks.
He says the Reserve Bank could announce an interest rate hike at its meeting on Thursday and if it does not do that this week then it's almost certain to in its March meeting.
Mr Speizer says in the other direction the Federal Reserve meeting is likely to wind down its quantitative easing programme further which will support the US dollar and depress the New Zealand against the US.
"That is why the kiwi is stuck in a holding pattern, if we get surprises on either front it will clearly move outside the range."
At about 5pm on Tuesday, the New Zealand dollar was trading at 82.69 US cents, 94.05 Australian cents, 49.77 British pence, 0.6043 euro and 84.88 yen.
New Zealand shares ease slightly
New Zealand shares were down only slightly, in contrast to much greater falls in offshore share markets.
The benchmark Top 50 Index eased 5 points to 4848.
Tyndall Investment Management head of equities Rickey Ward says the local market has been relatively resilient.
He says the New Zealand market underperformed last year relative to a number of global markets, Australia and the United States in particular, and perhaps their markets were due a bigger fall than New Zealand's which hadn't had a bigger rise.
Mr Ward says the tech sector rebounded on Tuesday, although they do not trade on big volumes, but despite that a number of them have traded on higher volumes than would be expected.
He says Xero tends to have international buyers and very limited sellers, which often creates a short squeeze which is likely what's happened on Tuesday.
Mr Ward says the others are domestically owned by a selected few which means it does not take much buying to move the share prices.
Synlait Milk on Tuesday announced that it was raising both its payout to suppliers and its expected annual profit and Mr Ward says it's pleasing to give guidance higher than what the prospectus was forecasting, it's still slightly below what analysts were predicting.
Xero shares gained $1.45 to $41.45 while Synlait fell 13 cents to $3.82.
