Investing.com - The New Zealand dollar tumbled over 1% against its U.S. counterpart on Monday, to hit two-and-a-half year lows as Friday's upbeat U.S. employment data continued to support demand for the greenback.
NZD/USD hit 0.7642 during early European trade, the pair's lowest since June 2012; the pair subsequently consolidated at 0.7636, retreating 1.02%.
The pair was likely to find support at 0.7451 and resistance at 0.7788, the high of December 5.
The greenback remained broadly supported after the Labor Department reported on Friday that the U.S. economy added 321,000 jobs in November, far more than the 225,000 forecast by economists and the largest monthly increase in almost three years.
September’s figure was revised up to 243,000 from a previously reported 214,000 and the unemployment rate remained unchanged at a six-year low of 5.8%.
The strong data fuelled to expectations for the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates mid-2015, compared to expectations for September 2015 before the report.
The kiwi was also lower against the Australian dollar, with AUD/NZD advancing 0.49% to 1.0830.
Also Monday, data showed that job advertisements in Australia rose 0.7% in November, after a 0.2% gain the previous month.