Investing.com - The New Zealand dollar was almost unchanged against its U.S. counterpart on Wednesday, as Tuesday's disappointing U.S. consumer sentiment data continued to pressure the greenback, while investors eyed the release of New Zealand trade balance data later in the day.
NZD/USD hit 0.8340 during late Asian trade, the session high; the pair subsequently consolidated at 0.8332, inching up 0.02%.
The pair was likely to find support at 0.8266, the low of February 21 and resistance at 0.8381, the high of February 18.
The Conference Board reported Tuesday that its U.S. consumer confidence index declined to 78.1 in February, from a downwardly revised 79.4 last month, amid concerns over the short-term outlook for business conditions, jobs, and earnings.
A recent series of disappointing U.S. economic indicators have sparked concerns that the recovery has lost momentum since the end of last year.
The kiwi was steady against the Australian dollar, with AUD/NZD easing 0.07% to 1.0821.
Also Wednesday, official data showed that construction work done in Australia fell 1% in the fourth quarter, compared to expectations for a 0.7% rise. Construction work done in the three months to September was revised up to a 3% increase from a previously estimated 2.7% gain.
Later in the day, the U.S. was to release data on new home sales.