Investing.com - The New Zealand dollar rose against its U.S. counterpart on Thursday, after the Reserve Bank of New Zealand left interest rates unchanged and upbeat New Zealand trade data, while the Federal Reserve’s policy statement slightly weighed on the greenback.
NZD/USD hit 0.6460 during late Asian trade, the session high; the pair subsequently consolidated at 0.6452, gaining 0.35%.
The pair was likely to find support at 0.6398, the low of January 19 and resistance at 0.6513, Wednesday’s high.
In a widely expected move, the RBNZ held its benchmark interest rate at 2.50%.
However, RBNZ Governor Graeme Wheeler said headline inflation will take longer to get back into the central bank's target between 1% and 3% than previously estimated, and that further rate cuts may be needed.
At the same time, Statistics New Zealand reported that the trade deficit narrowed to NZ$53 million in December from NZ$799 million in November, whose figure was revised from a previously estimated deficit of NZ$779 million.
Analysts had expected the trade deficit to narrow to NZ$131 million last month.
Meanwhile, the Fed kept interest rates unchanged as expected after its policy meeting on Wednesday and said the U.S. economy was still on track for moderate growth.
The greenback came under mild pressure as the U.S. central bank gave no indications on the pace of future interest rate increases.
The kiwi was higher against the euro, with EUR/NZD retreating 0.58% to 1.6846.