Westpac on Thursday ditched its call for two more rate cuts from the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) and forecast rates would be held at 0.25% for the foreseeable future.
"The weaker dollar narrative and broad-based ebullience for emerging markets have been challenged earlier in the year than we forecast, which may lead to a rethink of consensus trades, at least in the week ahead," Barclays analysts said in a note.
Experts said there was no evidence that vaccines would not protect against the new virus variant, but Britain's chief scientific adviser said that in the meantime tighter restrictions on public life in Britain were likely.
"A stronger than expected economy certainly goes in that direction, but this needs to be balanced against other developments such as the sharply higher New Zealand dollar."
The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies, was last at 90.477, after sinking as low as 90.419 on Monday, a level not seen since April 2018.