The New Zealand dollar rose to its highest point in more than two weeks ahead of an expected hike in interest rates by the Reserve Bank.
The kiwi touched 85.74 US cents overnight, and was trading at 85.53 cents at 8am in Wellington, from 85.48 cents at 5pm on Wednesday. The trade-weighted index was unchanged at 79.79.
Reserve Bank governor Graeme Wheeler is expected to lift the official cash rate a quarter point to 3.25 percent on Thursday morning.
But opinion is divided on whether he will affirm his previous expectation from March for 200 basis points of tightening over two years or signal a slower track.
Traders will be focused on the bank's 90-day bank bill track, a proxy for the OCR, to gauge whether Mr Wheeler will slow the pace of interest rate rises.
"A 25 basis points OCR hike from the RBNZ today should not surprise many as it is almost fully priced by the market," said Kymberly Martin, senior market strategist at Bank of New Zealand. "The focus will be on accompanying commentary (especially relating to the NZD) and the published 90-day bank bill track.
The monetary policy statement will include updated forecasts and Mr Wheeler will appear before parliament's finance and expenditure committee later in the day.
Later, traders will be eyeing a report on US retail sales for May.
The New Zealand dollar edged up to 91.12 Australian cents from 91.08 cents ahead of a report on Australian employment.
The kiwi touched a four-week high of 63.34 euro cents overnight and was trading at 63.22 cents at 8am from 63.18 cents ahead of a report on Eurozone industrial production. The local currency slipped to 50.94 British pence from 51.03 pence after a report showed UK unemployment fell to its lowest in more than five years.
The New Zealand dollar weakened to 87.26 yen from 87.44 yen on speculation the Bank of Japan will refrain from expanding stimulus at its Friday meeting.
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