Kiwi rises against weaker greenback, as demand for the latter is cooling
On Monday the New Zealand dollar climbed against its U.S. peer, as demand for the greenback cooled after the currency rallied to
multi-year highs against a basket of other major currencies last week.
NZD/USD hit 0.7378 during late Asian trade, the session high; the pair subsequently consolidated at 0.7377, gaining 0.46%. The pair was likely to find support at 0.7268, the low of March 12 and resistance at 0.7450, the high of March 12.
The greenback was broadly higher on Friday after downbeat U.S. data undermined optimism over the strength of the economy and pressured market sentiment.
The U.S. Department of Labor reported that producer prices fell 0.5% last month, confounding expectations for a 0.3% gain, after a 0.8% decline in January.
In addition, the University of Michigan announced that its consumer sentiment index fell to a four-month low of 91.2 this month from 95.4 in February, disappointing expectations for a rise to 95.5.
The New Zealand dollar was higher against the Australian dollar, with AUD/NZD shedding 0.33% to 1.0372.
On Monday, the Australian Bureau of Statistics announced that new motor vehicle sales rose 2.9% last month, after a 1.5% decline in January.
Investor are now anticipating Wednesday’s Federal Reserve statement to see if it would drop its reference to being patient before raising rates and signal that it is ready to hike rates depending on economic data.
