Investing.com - The New Zealand dollar edged higher against its U.S. counterpart on Thursday, even after data showed that manufacturing activity in New Zealand slowed moderately last month, as sentiment on the greenback remained fragile after Wednesday's U.S. data.
NZD/USD hit 0.7638 during late Asian trade, the pair's highest since March 26; the pair subsequently consolidated at 0.7601, adding 0.11%.
The pair was likely to find support at 0.7484, Wednesday's low and resistance at 0.7664, the high of March 26.
Data earlier showed that New Zealand's business manufacturing index fell to 54.5 in March from a reading of 56.1 in February, whose figure was revised from a previously estimated 55.9.
Meanwhile, the greenback remained under pressure after data on Wednesday showed that U.S. industrial production fell 0.6% in March, the largest fall since August 2012 and worse than economists' expectations for a 0.3% decline.
The data added to speculation that the Federal Reserve could delay hiking interest rates until late 2015, instead of tightening midyear.
The kiwi was lower against the Australian dollar, with AUD/NZD advancing 0.80% to 1.0191.
Also Thursday, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said that the number of employed people rose by 37,700 in March, exceeding expectations for an increase of 15,000. February's figure was revised to a 41,900 gain from a previously estimated 15,600 rise.
The report also showed that Australia's unemployment report ticked down to 6.1% last month from 6.2% in February, whose figure was revised from a previously estimated at 6.3%. Analysts had expected the unemployment rate to remain at 6.3%.
Later in the day, the U.S. was to release a string of reports, including jobless claims, building permits, housing starts and manufacturing activity in the Philadelphia region.