Investing.com - The New Zealand dollar dropped against its U.S. counterpart on Wednesday, after data showed that New Zealand's trade surplus widened far less than expected in February, while Tuesday's U.S. data continued to support demand for the greenback.
NZD/USD hit 0.7602 during late Asian trade, the pair's lowest since Monday; the pair subsequently consolidated at 0.7620, retreating 0.44%.
The pair was likely to find support at 0.7610, Monday's low and resistance at 0.7695, Tuesday's high.
In a report, Statistics New Zealand said that the country's trade surplus hit NZ$50 million last month from NZ$33 million in January, whose figure was revised from a previously estimated surplus of NZ$56 million.
Analysts had expected the trade surplus to widen to NZ$375 million last month.
Meanwhile, the dollar remained supported after data on Tuesday showed that U.S. consumer prices rose 0.2% in February, in line with market expectations. Core inflation, which excludes food and energy costs was up 1.7% from the same month last year, the largest increase since November.
The uptick in underlying inflation indicated that the Federal Reserve would still have leeway to tighten monetary policy even with inflation running below target.
A separate report showed that U.S. new home sales jumped 7.8% to an annual unit rate of 539,000 last month, the highest level since February 2008, the Commerce Department said.
In addition, the preliminary reading of the U.S. manufacturing purchasing managers' index rose to 55.3 this month, the highest level since October, from 55.1 in February.
The kiwi was lower against the euro, with EUR/NZD gaining 0.52% to 1.4346.
Later in the day, the U.S. was to publish data on durable goods orders.