Investing.com - The U.S. dollar traded higher against its New Zealand rival during Friday’s Asian session following the release of building consents data for May.
In Asian trading Friday, NZD/USD dropped 0.22% to 0.7780. The pair was likely to find support at 0.7718, Wednesday's low and resistance at 0.7890, the high of June 20.
In a report released earlier Friday, Statistics New Zealand said new building permits increased 1.3% to a seasonally adjusted 1,818 last month. Excluding apartments, seasonally adjusted permits fell 0.3% to 1,591.
New residential permits jumped 22% to 18,521 on an annual basis, and excluding apartments, consents jumped 23% to 16,754, according to the data.
The value of non-residential construction permits surged 24% to NZD434 million from a year earlier, and was up 9.2% to NZD4.04 billion on an annual basis.
The consents data come a day after another report showed that New Zealand's trade surplus narrowed unexpectedly in May, falling to NZD71 million from a surplus of NZD174 million the previous month.
Analysts had expected the trade surplus to widen to NZD400 million last month.
A separate report showed that the ANZ business confidence index for New Zealand rose to 50.1 this month, from a reading of 41.8 in May.
Elsewhere, NZD/JPY rose 0.24% to 76.86 after the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said Japan’s unemployment rate was unchanged last month at 4.1%. Analysts expected a reading of 4%.
A separate report showed Japanese retail sales increased 1.5% last month, easily topping the expected increase of 0.7% and the revised April reading of an increase of 0.6%. In another report, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said Japan’s national rate of inflation was -0.3% last month, beating expectations for a -0.4% reading.
Meanwhile, AUD/NZD fell 0.24% to 1.1877 while EUR/NZD rose 0.25% to 1.6775.
In Asian trading Friday, NZD/USD dropped 0.22% to 0.7780. The pair was likely to find support at 0.7718, Wednesday's low and resistance at 0.7890, the high of June 20.
In a report released earlier Friday, Statistics New Zealand said new building permits increased 1.3% to a seasonally adjusted 1,818 last month. Excluding apartments, seasonally adjusted permits fell 0.3% to 1,591.
New residential permits jumped 22% to 18,521 on an annual basis, and excluding apartments, consents jumped 23% to 16,754, according to the data.
The value of non-residential construction permits surged 24% to NZD434 million from a year earlier, and was up 9.2% to NZD4.04 billion on an annual basis.
The consents data come a day after another report showed that New Zealand's trade surplus narrowed unexpectedly in May, falling to NZD71 million from a surplus of NZD174 million the previous month.
Analysts had expected the trade surplus to widen to NZD400 million last month.
A separate report showed that the ANZ business confidence index for New Zealand rose to 50.1 this month, from a reading of 41.8 in May.
Elsewhere, NZD/JPY rose 0.24% to 76.86 after the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said Japan’s unemployment rate was unchanged last month at 4.1%. Analysts expected a reading of 4%.
A separate report showed Japanese retail sales increased 1.5% last month, easily topping the expected increase of 0.7% and the revised April reading of an increase of 0.6%. In another report, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said Japan’s national rate of inflation was -0.3% last month, beating expectations for a -0.4% reading.
Meanwhile, AUD/NZD fell 0.24% to 1.1877 while EUR/NZD rose 0.25% to 1.6775.