The New Zealand dollar slipped against the greenback but gained against the euro after the European Central Bank failed to announce any new economic stimulus overnight.
The kiwi recently traded at US80.86 cents, down from US80.91c at 5pm yesterday, while on the Trade Weighted Index of major trading partners' currencies it rose to 73.10 from 73.
ECB President Mario Draghi, in an almost carbon copy version of the Federal Reserve statement the day before, said the bank may act should the economic situation in Europe deteriorate further but held back on launching any new policy response to the four-year debt crisis.
That dealt a sharp blow to global markets, which had rallied after Draghi last week said the central bank was prepared to do what every it takes to ensure the survival of the eurozone.
Investors had been hoping for a resumption of the ECB's bond buying programme, the ESM rescue fund to be issued with a banking license and an interest rate cut.
Instead the bank stalled on both measures and kept rates on hold at 0.75 per cent.
The announcement knocked the wind out of the euro, which had climbed to US$1.2404 ahead of the statement and then fell to an intra-session low of US$1.2133. The single currency pared some of those losses to recently trade at US$1.2178.
"The ECB disappointment should weigh on the currencies during the days ahead, although there was enough in the statement and comments to prevent a worst-case-scenario selloff," said Imre Speizer, a market strategist at Westpac.
On Wall Street, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell 0.9 per cent to 1362.18 in afternoon trade, and yields on Spanish and Italian bonds rose to 7.254 per cent and 6.33 per cent respectively.
The New Zealand dollar hit fresh record high of 66.68 euro cents overnight from 66.02 euro cents yesterday, and it gained to 52.14 pence from 52.05 pence. The kiwi rose to 77.34 Australian cents from A77.14c yesterday and slipped to 63.25 yen from 63.48 yen.
Speizer said he expects the currency to trade between a range of US80.30c and US80.80 for the rest of the day, with further consolidation in store ahead of the release of US non-farm payrolls data for July later tonight.
