The kiwi was at US0.6639 at 8am in Wellington, from 0.6625 at the New York close, and down from 0.6764 on Friday. The trade-weighted index dropped to 72.57 from 73.46 on Friday.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies, jumped to its highest in more than three weeks after US economic growth held up better than expected in the fourth quarter, January inflation beat expectations, and consumer spending and sentiment exceeded forecasts. That renewed investor confidence in the prospect for further US interest rate hikes this year, stoking demand for the US dollar.
"All the key US data releases were positive for the US dollar," BNZ currency strategist Jason Wong said. "These data led the market to price in more chance of the Fed hiking this year, driving US rates and the US dollar higher, and US equities down slightly."
In NZ today, traders will be eyeing the release of the ANZ Business Outlook survey at 1pm for signs of weaker business confidence and inflation expectations. Building consent data for January is published at 10:45am.
The NZ dollar fell to A0.9302 from 0.9341 on Friday, declined to €0.6074 from 0.6112, dropped to £0.4782 from 0.4829, slid to 75.62 yen from 76.33 yen and sank to 4.3412 yuan from 4.4211 yuan.
