Investing.com - The New Zealand dollar edged higher against its U.S. counterpart on Wednesday, although markets were jittery ahead of the Federal Reserve's highly anticipated policy statement, expected later in the day.
NZD/USD hit 0.8672 during late Asian trade, the session high; the pair subsequently consolidated at 0.8671, adding 0.15%.
The pair was likely to find support at 0.8606, the low of June 6 and resistance at 0.8710, the high of May 7.
The greenback strengthened on Tuesday after the Labor Department said that U.S. consumer prices rose 0.4% from a month earlier, bringing the annual rate of inflation to 2.1%. It was the fastest monthly increase in inflation in more than a year, beating forecasts of 0.2%.
Investors were looking ahead to the bank’s post-policy meeting press conference with Chair Janet Yellen later Wednesday, as they awaited fresh indications on the timing of possible interest rate increases.
The Fed was expected to cut its asset purchase program by another $10 billion, but is not expected to raise borrowing costs until mid-2015.
In New Zealand, data earlier showed that the current account swung into a surplus of NZ$1.41 billion in the first quarter, from a deficit of NZ$1.51 billion in the fourth quarter of 2013, whose figure was revised down from a previously estimated deficit of NZ$1.43 billion.
Analysts had expected the current account to rise to a surplus of NZ$1.30 billion in the last quarter.
The kiwi was fractionally higher against the Australian dollar, with AUD/NZD easing 0.09% to 1.0773.
Also Wednesday, the Conference Board said its leading index for Australia fell 0.1% in April, after a flat reading the previous month.