The New Zealand dollar slid against the currencies of most of the country's major trading partners on Wednesday but edged up slightly against its Australian counterpart.
ANZ foreign exchange strategist Sam Tuck said the American dollar rose against the Kiwi due to recent figures indicating the world's largest economy was continuing to improve.
"So we had some strong data out of the US overnight. Consumer confidence was high, increasing to 85, and new home sales increased by 18 percent, giving the US dollar a bit of a bid tone across the board, with the Kiwi-US going down in response," Mr Tuck said.
"The Kiwi-Aussie has been relatively unchanged as the broad-based move has been against the US dollar. The Kiwi has appreciated ever so slightly against the Aussie in the last 24 hours but it's within the bounds of normal activity, so I wouldn't read much into that movement."
Just after 5pm, the Kiwi was trading at 86.77 US cents, 92.66 Australian cents, 51.12 pence, 0.6375 euro, 88.4 yen and 5.41 renminbi.
Shares down
New Zealand shares dropped on Wednesday, with the benchmark Top 50 Index down 17 points to 5105.
Fat Prophets head of research Greg Smith said the upbeat data from the US had little impact on the sharemarket.
"We're lower there today. I think we're seeing a few markets come off a bit despite some pretty confident housing and confidence numbers in the US."
Gentrack shares were down 9 cents to $2.49, after being listed at $2.40 a share, while Serko shares climbed 6 cents to $1.01.
