Wall Street was the exception, with the US stocks opening the new year with a bang, lifted by positive US, Chinese and euro zone manufacturing data, and further underpinned by unexpected expansion in the US manufacturing sector for December.
Forsyth Barr broker Suzanne Kinnaird said the kiwi had reacted to positive news out of both Europe and the US.
The kiwi gained more than US1c yesterday on opening, trading at around US78.97 before mid-day.
The rise to almost US79c mirrored Forsyth Barr predictions last October, when the kiwi was at US75.80, that it would have a 12-month average around US79c.
The ASX opened on Tuesday with the benchmark ASX 200 and All Ords indexes closing up just over 1% each, in quiet trading, while the NZX was similarly quiet on reopening yesterday.
On Tuesday, European stocks closed at their highest in five months and the US stock indices hit multimonth highs, while in general yesterday, Asian stocks and the euro firmed, as investor risk appetite returned after the upbeat data.
Toward the end of yesterday's trading , with the ASX looking to post modest gains again, Ms Kinnaird said the NZX had traded $44 million at 4.30pm, being "quiet as expected" and likely to continue that way until next week.
She noted positive trading for Port of Tauranga, Trade Me and Oceana Gold shares, while Telecom and Chorus were both down about 2% and Contact Energy off 0.75%.
The kiwi's gain followed the overnight fall in prices of dairy products, down 0.7%, for the first online fortnightly sale of Fonterra Co-operative Group's GlobalDairyTrade platform for 2012; data which was released yesterday morning.
The decline was paced by whole and skim milk powder.
The average winning price declined to $US3654 a tonne from $US3688 a tonne from the last sale on December 20.
Commodity prices fell through much of 2011 as investors fretted about the impact Europe's debt crisis could have in slowing global growth.
The region is expected to sink into recession this year as leaders argue about the response to the crisis.
The US data follows on from solid manufacturing activity in China and a better-than-expected jobless report being released by Germany.
"The New Zealand and Australian dollar climbed because risk appetite has been put on," said Stuart Ive, senior trader at HiFX.
"There has been a surge in the stock market - risk is back," he said.
On Wall Street the three major indices had closed the final session of 2011 on Friday in the red, but for the year the Dow was up 5.5%, while the S&P 500 was flat and the Nasdaq fell 1.8% as investors appeared to pause ahead of the extended New Year's holiday weekend.
Underpinning the surge in reopening US stocks was the Institute for Supply Management's manufacturing index hitting 53.9%, an increase of 1.2 points from November for the fastest rate in six months.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 179.82 points, or 1.47%, to finish at 12,397.38.
The tech-rich Nasdaq Composite jumped 43.57 points, or 1.67% to 2648.72, while the S&P 500, a broad measure of the markets, advanced 19.46 points, or 1.55%, to 1277.06.
"Although off of the best levels of the day, United States stocks remain nicely higher," said analysts at Charles Schwab.
Earlier on Tuesday the Commerce Department reported that United States construction spending had increased by 1.2% in November, another better-than-expected rate.
• Additional reporting, New Zealand Herald, AFP and BusinessDesk.
