Investing.com - The New Zealand dollar was higher against its U.S. counterpart on Thursday, but gains were expected to remain limited as the greenback recovered from Wednesday's disappointing retail sales report.
NZD/USD hit 0.7753 during late Asian trade, the session high; the pair subsequently consolidated at 0.7750, gaining 0.41%.
The pair was likely to find support at 0.7679, the low of January 6 and resistance at 0.7802, the high of January 13.
The greenback regained some ground after falling in the previous session when a report showed the largest drop in U.S. retail sales in 11 months in December.
Official data on Wednesday showed that U.S. retail sales fell 0.9% last month after rising 0.4% in November.
The kiwi was lower against the Australian dollar, with AUD/NZD climbing 0.56% to 1.0618.
Also Thursday, the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported that the number of employed people increased by 37,400 last month, beating expectations for a 3,800 rise. The employment change for November was revised to a 44,900 gain from a previously estimated 42,700 increase.
The report also showed that Australia's unemployment rate ticked down to 6.1% in December from 6.2% in November, whose figure was revised down from a previously estimated rate of 6.3%.
Analysts had expected the unemployment rate to sit at 6.3% last month.
Later in the day, the U.S. was to publish the weekly report on initial jobless claims as well as data on producer prices and manufacturing activity in the Philadelphia region.