Investing.com - The New Zealand dollar climbed against its U.S. counterpart on Monday, 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 strengthened broadly on Friday after downbeat U.S. data dampened optimism over the strength of the economy, weighing on 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.
Separately, the University of Michigan said 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.
Market participants were now eyeing 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.
The kiwi was higher against the Australian dollar, with AUD/NZD shedding 0.33% to 1.0372.
Also Monday, the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported that new motor vehicle sales rose 2.9% last month, after a 1.5% decline in January.
Later in the day, the U.S. was to produce reports on industrial production and manufacturing activity in the New York region, as well as private sector data on the housing market.