Investing.com - The New Zealand dollar edged higher against its U.S. counterpart on Wednesday, after the release of mixed economic reports from New Zealand, while investors remained cautious ahead of the Federal Reserve's policy statement later in the day.
NZD/USD hit 0.8572 during late Asian trade, the pair's highest since Monday; the pair subsequently consolidated at 0.8559, adding 0.08%.
The pair was likely to find support at 0.8414, the low of April 3 and resistance at 0.8636, the high of April 24.
Official data earlier showed that building consents in New Zealand rose 8.3% last month, compared to expectations for a 2.0% increase, after a 1.7% drop in February.
A separate report showed that the ANZ business confidence index for New Zealand ticked down to 64.8 in April, from a reading of 67.3 in March.
In the U.S., the Fed was expected to stick to its current timetable for tapering its asset purchase program.
The greenback remained mildly supported after data on Tuesday showed that U.S. consumer confidence dipped this month but remained close to recent highs. The Conference Board said its consumer confidence index fell to 82.3 in April from a revised 83.9 in March, the highest level since January 2008. Analysts had expected the index to fall to 83.0.
The kiwi was higher against the euro, with EUR/NZD edging down 0.08% to 1.6142.
Later in the day, the U.S. was to release preliminary data on first quarter gross domestic product, as well as the ADP report on private sector job creation and data on manufacturing activity in the Chicago region.