Kiwi rises against weaker greenback

Investing.com – The New Zealand dollar rose against its U.S. counterpart on Thursday, as demand for the greenback remained under pressure after Wednesday’s downbeat U.S. economic reports.

NZD/USD hit 0.7485 during late Asian trade, the session high; the pair subsequently consolidated at 0.7487, gaining 0.50%.

The pair was likely to find support at 0.7390, Wednesday’s low and resistance at 0.7570, the high of March 30.

The greenback weakened broadly on Wednesday after the Institute for Supply Management said that its index of purchasing managers fell to a 14-month low of 51.5 last month from a reading of 52.9 in February.

In addition, payroll processing firm ADP reported that non-farm private employment rose by 189,000 last month, below expectations for an increase of 225,000.

Investors were awaiting the U.S. jobs report due out on Friday, which was expected to support expectations for higher interest rates.

The kiwi was also higher against the Australian dollar, with AUD/NZD declining 0.56% to 1.0140.

Statistics Australia earlier reported that the country’s trade deficit narrowed to A$1.26 billion in February from A$1.00 billion in January, whose figure was revised from a previously estimated deficit of A$0.98 billion.

Analysts had expected the trade deficit to widen to A$1.300 billion in February.
Later in the day, the U.S. was to release data on the trade balance, as well as on initial jobless claims and factory orders.

Source: investing.com